Lebanon

Oakland University recently launched an online MBA program for students in Lebanon. It is the first American, online program to be offered in any Arab country. Oakland County in Michigan is home to 179 Fortune 500 companies and also has the largest Lebanese community in the United States.

The university hopes to eventually attract students from other parts of the Arab World, especially from Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian-controlled territories. Oakland’s online MBA program in Lebanon will combine distance-learning courses with campus-based seminars conducted in Beirut. For the final part of the program, students must travel to Michigan, where they meet face-to-face with their professors and local business leaders.

— Chronicle of Higher Education
Jan. 12, 2001

Israel

The government will slash undergraduate tuition in half over the next five years at Israel’s public universities. As part of his 1999 campaign promises, the prime minister accepted the recommendations of the Commission for the Lowering of Tuition and ignored critics of the proposal, including two university administrators.

Under the proposed plan, tuition fees, currently US$2,500 a year, will be cut US$375 for the 2001/2002 academic year. It will then drop by $225 a year during the next four years. The decision will also give money to students at the country’s new private colleges. Administrators of the latter hope the decision will mark the beginning of government-financed support for private colleges.

— Chronicle of Higher Education
Jan. 12, 2001