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The Faculty of Medicine, Beirut Arab University (BAUFM) was established in 1995. Its journey towards pursuing international standards in medical education is a continuous process of experiences, reflection, concept development, evaluation, improvement and change.
The Faculty offers a Bachelor Degree in Medicine and Surgery (M.B.B.Ch). In addition, the Faculty provides Master and Doctorate Degrees in some Basic and Clinical Medical specialties. Moreover, 24 residency and fellowship programs run in collaboration with many affiliated hospitals in Lebanon. At present, 680 students are enrolled in the program and 1354 already graduated.
The Faculty holds affiliations with many distinguished hospitals in Lebanon; in Beirut, it is affiliated with Makassed General Hospital, Dar El Ajaza Al Islamia Hospital, Najjar and Military Hospital Hospital. The affiliation with hospitals extends to cover Lebanese regions outside Beirut; Hammoud Hospital University Medical Center and Saida Governmental Hospital at Saida city; Rayak and Beqaa hospitals in the region of Beqaa; and Mazloum, Alnini, and Haykel Hospitals in the city of Tripoli. In addition, the Faculty holds agreement with Notre Dame du Liban Hospital in Jounieh, North of Beirut. The agreements with these hospitals provide students with venues for undergraduate clinical training and postgraduate professional residency and fellowship programs.
At its beginning, the BAUFM adopted the six years discipline-based program on a scholar-year basis; afterwards, the same curriculum was adjusted to comply with the Credit Hour System adopted by the University in the year 2005, which was intended to give students more flexibility and simplicity to select their courses and adjust their schedules.
With the international rapid and fundamental changes of medical education at all levels, BAUFM found its way to move from a traditional curriculum based on disciplines and teacher-centered learning policy to an outcomes and competencies based curriculum with the adoption of an integrated curriculum. Accordingly, different strategies of authentic learning are implemented including Problem-Based Learning (PBL), Team-Based Learning (TBL) and Case-Based Learning. Basic Medical Sciences and Clinical Sciences are integrated from day one. Inculcating a research culture all through the different phases of the curriculum is one of the key features of the Faculty’s program.
The implementation of the Outcome Based Integrated Curriculum started since the academic year 2010/2011. The first group of students of this reformed program graduated on June 2016.