The Lebanese American University’s administration rejected the student council’s request for a meeting regarding the tuition increase, citing that the large spike in tuition fees is “not a legal matter”.
The independent Student Council at LAU took to their Instagram account to share an email received from the Dean of Students, Dr. Raed Mohsen.
“The adoption of the electronic platform exchange rate, is not a legal matter, rather an internal financial one. There is no need to have among us either an external lawyer to represent the student body nor the university’s in-house counsel,” Mohsen wrote in the email.
Yet, representatives of the student body have been engaging in daily sit-ins in front of LAU Beirut’s lower gate, demanding transparency in regards to the tuition increase that was decided back in December.
Student Council member Leen El-Harake even posted a video on her Instagram explaining why the Spring tuition increase is illegal based on that Lebanon’s Monetary and Credit Law binds all institutions on Lebanese territories to deal in the Lebanese Pound.
“As long as the official rate of the Central Bank is 1,500 L.L, students must pay their tuition based on that rate,” she said, adding that the Ministry of Education hasn’t received since 2014 the budgets of private educational institutions as required by the law.
AUB and LAU have raised tuition by 160% in the middle of the academic year, compelling to initiate a “We Won’t Pay” campaign to express their rejection and to demand a reversal of the dollarization.
In parallel, most private universities in Lebanon, including USJ, AUST, UOB, and many more, have decided to freeze their tuition fees at the official rate in order to support their students during the ongoing economic catastrophe.
