American University of Beirut – Mediterraneo, Coming in Fall 2023

Fall 2022

Things are buzzing in Pafos, Cyprus, where the American University of Beirut is establishing its first twin campus in the history of the university. Atlas Pantou – MAN Joint Venture, which was selected to construct the American University of Beirut – Mediterraneo campus in Pafos, Cyprus, broke ground on September 28, 2022, and is hard at work. AUB faculty and staff in Beirut have also been mobilized to prepare for the first cohort of students who will be welcomed to AUB Mediterraneo in August 2023. “This is truly a milestone event in the history of the American University of Beirut,” says President Fadlo R. Khuri.

AUB Mediterraneo, which has been approved by the New York State Education Department and the Middle States Commission on Higher Education as a branch campus of AUB, will be offering five undergraduate degree programs in fall 2023: philosophy, politics, and economics (BA); psychology (BS); computer science (BS); industrial engineering (BS); and business administration–management (BBA). It will also offer two graduate programs in engineering management (MS) and business analytics (MS). All undergraduate students will begin by participating in a three-week orientation and induction program, which will prepare students to take full advantage of the AUB Mediterraneo experience and give them a chance to meet each other and receive lots of practical advice. “The general education courses that we will be offering at AUB Mediterraneo will be a new experience for many—perhaps all—of our Pafos students,” explains Dr. Wassim El-Hajj, executive director of the AUB Mediterraneo project. “We want to provide incoming students with the background and tools they need so that they can take full advantage of these courses, which so many of our students in Beirut find to be especially valuable.”

One of the attractions of AUB Mediterraneo is its location in Pafos, a coastal city in southwest Cyprus. It’s a stunningly beautiful and interesting place to live with world-famous historical treasures. (Pafos was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980.) It’s also an easy place to navigate and is not too far from Beirut. “There will be extensive interaction between the AUB campus in Beirut and AUB Mediterraneo in Pafos,” says El-Hajj. The new campus in Pafos will also be a platform for greater engagement and research collaboration between faculty in Beirut and European and Mediterranean partners. “We look forward to strengthening our existing partnerships, developing new ones, and investing in innovative, collaborative, and interdisciplinary research programs that further increase the scope and impact of AUB’s research enterprise,” says AUB Provost Zaher Dawy.