Beirut Arab University

SDG 1 No Poverty

University and Community Alignment Report | Lebanon

Evidence review updated 19 October 2026

Understanding the goal

SDG 1 seeks to end poverty in all its forms. For a university, the relevant responsibilities include reducing financial barriers to study, protecting access to basic services, preparing people for livelihoods and helping vulnerable communities withstand shocks. Targets 1.2, 1.3, 1.4 and 1.5 connect these responsibilities with multidimensional poverty, social protection, essential services and resilience. A university contribution is assessed through the accessibility and effects of its own provision; it is not equivalent to changing a national poverty rate.

Evidence: United Nations SDG 1 targets

BAU’s contribution

BAU addresses poverty principally through student support and community service. Its published financial aid arrangements, paid work opportunities and accommodation support provide routes for students facing financial pressure. Free dental outreach and agreements with welfare organisations extend university expertise to people outside the institution. Employment preparation adds a longer-term pathway by helping students use their education to seek income and professional opportunities.

Students staff and community

Students can use tuition support and paid work opportunities and contribute to supervised outreach. Academic staff connect professional knowledge with basic services and livelihood learning. Administrative employees assess applications and coordinate support. Community organisations help identify needs and provide settings where services can reach people facing disadvantage.

Evidence approach: dated activities and research from 2021–2026 are prioritised. Standing services are identified as such; policies and agreements have no date cutoff. Original links accompany the evidence. The final page proposes improvements and does not claim they are already implemented.

Student affordability and support for employees

Financial need informs tuition assistance

BAU’s social financial aid framework provides tuition reductions that vary with a student’s financial circumstances. Applications include household income and expenditure documents and are assessed by the Financial Aid Committee. The published page contains dated application instructions, so its enduring significance is the documented need-assessment mechanism; current deadlines and awards should be communicated through the university’s active application process.

Evidence: BAU social financial aid framework

Assessing the household, rather than academic performance alone, is relevant to poverty because students can face costs that are not visible in their grades. A transparent assessment process can help identify the effect of a parent’s unemployment, medical costs or other pressures. Its practical value depends on timely decisions and whether the assistance enables recipients to remain enrolled. These are useful outcomes for BAU to track alongside the number of awards.

Paid work and accommodation support

The Work Study Plan offers paid part-time work in university faculties, offices and departments to undergraduates experiencing financial difficulty. It links accepted financial need with a limited number of work hours and an application through iConnect. This combines financial assistance with supervised workplace experience.

Evidence: BAU paid student work study plan

BAU also publishes an accommodation grant for eligible students living on campus in Debbieh. Housing assistance addresses a different component of the cost of study from tuition. It should be understood as a conditional support scheme, with eligibility and available places determining access.

Evidence: BAU student accommodation grant

Support extends to employees and their families

Human Resources describes scholastic support for employees’ children and conditional university financial aid for children studying at BAU. These benefits provide a family-support mechanism within the university’s employment arrangements.

Evidence: BAU Human Resources services and staff development

Together, these arrangements show how academic, student affairs and administrative functions can contribute to SDG 1. Staff assess applications, administer benefits and supervise student work, while students gain an opportunity to continue learning and develop practical skills. The policy mechanisms establish institutional provision; measuring retention and financial pressure would clarify their contribution to poverty prevention.

Access to basic services in the community

Free dental care for vulnerable groups

BAU’s Faculty of Dentistry operates a two-chair Mobile Dental Clinic intended to reach vulnerable people in poor urban and remote rural communities. Its published service specification explicitly states that public services are free. Residents and specialised staff provide oral screening, prevention, emergency care and referral where further treatment is required.

Evidence: BAU free Mobile Dental Clinic services

This contributes to the basic-service dimension of poverty by bringing professional care closer to people who may struggle with treatment and travel costs. Screening also creates a point of contact for referral. The poverty-related benefit should be described through access and avoided barriers; a reduction in household medical expenditure would require separate measurement.

Cooperation with a child welfare organisation

On 20 October 2021, BAU and the Sidon Orphan Welfare Society signed an agreement covering student internships, graduate work opportunities and cooperation in services responding to children’s needs. The agreement connects the Faculty of Human Sciences with an organisation serving vulnerable children. It is a framework for cooperation, rather than a count of children who subsequently received assistance.

Evidence: BAU and Sidon Orphan Welfare Society agreement

Such a partnership can connect professional education with the everyday needs of families. Students gain field experience, academic staff provide supervision, and a community organisation contributes knowledge of local circumstances. The strongest continuing evidence would pair the agreement with placements, completed activities and beneficiary feedback.

Nutritional support for children in care

On 25 April 2024, Nutrition and Dietetics students in Tripoli, supervised by their instructors, assessed growth patterns and developed menus for children at Dar Al-Zahraa orphanage. They also delivered dietary-guideline education to technical institute students. This is a completed example of professional learning serving a vulnerable community.

Evidence: BAU nutritional assessment at Dar Al Zahraa

The activity addresses the quality of a basic service rather than a cash transfer. Its relationship with poverty lies in supporting children whose care depends on institutional provision. Follow-up assessment would help distinguish an educational visit from a sustained improvement in menus, growth monitoring or referral arrangements.

Education and partnerships for stronger livelihoods

Preparation for self employment

BAU records two Be Your Own Boss workshops delivered with the USAID Higher Education Capacity Development programme on 23 September 2022 and 24 March 2023. These workshops provided students with entrepreneurship learning through a university-organised, internationally supported activity.

Evidence: BAU and USAID Be Your Own Boss workshops

Entrepreneurship education can broaden a student’s options when salaried employment is limited. Its contribution to SDG 1 is strongest when mentoring, realistic market assessment and follow-up support help participants turn a viable idea into income. Workshop participation itself demonstrates access to learning, while a livelihood outcome requires evidence of business survival, earnings or employment.

Connections with employers and graduates

The Alumni and Career Center’s Career Fair 2024 invitation scheduled employer and alumni engagement at Beirut Campus on 25 April. It described internship and employment opportunities, professional networking and career preparation. The invitation establishes the university’s organised access route to employers; it does not establish how many participants secured work.

Evidence: BAU Career Fair April 2024

For students receiving financial aid, an accessible transition into work is part of the longer-term value of education. Academic staff can support technical preparation, career advisers can explain applications, and employers can identify the skills they need. Connecting these services with financial-support recipients would make the pathway easier to follow without treating low income as a limitation on ability.

International support for marginalised learners

BAU’s agreement-based scholarship page describes Unite Lebanon Youth Project scholarships for Palestinian students and educational opportunities for marginalised youth and women. The scheme adds a partner-supported access route alongside university aid. The published framework supports the existence and purpose of the opportunity; annual recipients and available funding should be recorded separately.

Evidence: BAU agreement based scholarships

These mechanisms show complementary approaches: help students meet immediate costs, provide supported professional experience and connect graduates with opportunities. BAU can strengthen their combined effect by following the same learner through admission, financial support, progression and transition into employment. That would provide a more informative account than treating each activity as an unrelated achievement.

A further scholarship partnership in October 2026

On 8 October 2026, BAU signed a one-year protocol with Al-Irshad and Al-Islah Association. It includes scholarships for affiliated students under BAU admission and aid rules, alongside educational, health and social cooperation. This is a new framework for targeted support, with recipients and delivered activities to be documented separately.

Evidence: BAU charitable association cooperation protocol October 2026

Priorities for strengthening the contribution to SDG 1

BAU’s documented contribution is strongest where assistance is attached to an identifiable university service or partner. The next stage is to understand who benefits, whether support reaches people facing the greatest barriers and how their circumstances change. The priorities below are recommendations for building on the existing provision.

Connect assistance with student progression

A confidential support register could connect aid decisions, work-study participation and accommodation support with retention and graduation. Publishing aggregated results would show whether support arrives early enough to prevent interruption. Comparisons should account for differences in starting circumstances rather than implying that all students face the same costs. Applicants should receive clear explanations of criteria, documentation and review routes.

Make community support easier to evaluate

The mobile clinic and welfare partnership could use anonymised referral and follow-up records that distinguish a screening, a treatment and a completed care pathway. Community partners should help define useful outcomes, such as a child receiving necessary follow-up care or an organisation using a revised menu. This would keep reporting centred on changes in access and service quality.

For employees, scholastic benefits should be communicated consistently across academic and administrative groups, with clear eligibility and application steps. For students, work allocations should remain compatible with study commitments. A coordinated approach would help BAU identify circumstances in which tuition assistance alone leaves a significant barrier unresolved.

BAU’s alignment with SDG 1 therefore rests on practical routes to affordable education, paid learning opportunities and basic services for vulnerable groups. Strengthening the evidence around coverage and outcomes would make that contribution more accountable while preserving the dignity and confidentiality of those receiving support.