Doubling Registration Fees 5 Times!

The Lebanese University administration is moving towards increasing registration fees for the undergraduate educational level from 250,000 LBP to an amount ranging between 1 million and 1.5 million LBP for students insured under their families. Meanwhile, the guarantee fee, linked to the pricing of the National Social Security Fund, has risen from 90,000 to 600,000 LBP. It is also expected that the fee for the master's degree will rise from 750,000 LBP to about 2.5 million LBP. There is a proposal to raise the doctoral fee to 5 million LBP for Lebanese students and 15 million LBP for Arab and foreign students. Despite the wave of objections against raising registration fees, "Al-Akhbar" reported that the direction is serious, and the proposal, which needs the approval of the University Council (currently absent), will be submitted to the Minister of Education upon his return from New York for approval, as it currently involves the president of the University Council, after which it will be raised to the Presidency of the Government to become effective after the issuance of a decree signed by both the Prime Minister and the President. It is not yet known what the position of the Minister of Education, Abbas Halabi, will be regarding the registration fees or whether he will actually agree to raise them.