Beirut Arab University

SDG 4 Quality Education

University and Community Alignment Report | Lebanon

Evidence review updated 19 October 2026

Understanding the goal

SDG 4 concerns inclusive, equitable education and opportunities to learn throughout life. For higher education, important targets include access to technical and university education, relevant skills, reduction of unequal participation, education for sustainable development and support for teachers. The goal applies to the quality and accessibility of BAU’s own teaching and to the learning opportunities it provides for people who are not enrolled in a degree.

Evidence: United Nations SDG 4 targets

BAU’s contribution

BAU contributes through formal programmes, student support, teacher preparation, open learning resources and community education. Its recent activities include school science and sociology competitions, supervised outreach, cooperation with schools and international course development. Students are learners and contributors, academic staff design and deliver education, and administrative and library teams make access and learning support practical.

Students staff and community

Students are both learners and contributors to school outreach and cultural activity. Academic staff design teaching and public learning. Library, technology and administrative employees support access and participation. Schools and other educational partners contribute classroom experience and help connect university resources with learners beyond degree enrolment.

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.

Inclusive learning within the university

Affordability and support for participation

BAU publishes need-based tuition assistance and merit scholarships. These offer different routes into support: financial circumstances inform social aid, while academic achievement informs merit awards. Their contribution to inclusive education depends on clear eligibility and whether students can continue and complete their studies.

Evidence: BAU social financial aid framework | BAU merit scholarship arrangements

The Disability Policy describes support intended to make academic participation accessible to students with disabilities. It provides an institutional basis for addressing barriers in learning and university life. Actual arrangements should be implemented according to individual needs and the services available.

Evidence: BAU Disability Policy

Inclusive education requires coordination. Academic staff can explain learning expectations and appropriate adjustments, administrators can make application and registration processes understandable, and students can identify barriers early. Accessibility is stronger when it is considered in course design and communication, rather than only after a learner encounters difficulty.

Students contribute to academic improvement

BAU’s student representation page describes student membership in faculty councils, quality assurance activity and faculty committees. These arrangements create routes for learners to contribute to discussions of services and academic experience. They establish published participation mechanisms without proving that every representative is elected to the university’s highest governing body.

Evidence: BAU student representation arrangements

Resources that widen access to knowledge

The library’s open educational resources and open-access pages direct users to publicly available learning and research material. These resources can support students, staff and external learners, subject to the access and reuse conditions of each resource.

Evidence: BAU open educational resources | BAU open access learning and research resources

Library teams help people find and assess information, while teaching staff can connect suitable resources with course outcomes. A useful next step is to assess whether learners can locate accessible materials and use them effectively. Availability is an access condition; educational benefit also depends on relevance, guidance and the ability to engage with the material.

Learning opportunities for schools and the public

Science learning through a recurring fair

On 18 March 2023, the Faculty of Science hosted BAU’s Third Annual Science Fair at Beirut Campus. More than 230 school students from 29 schools presented 90 projects. Students discussed their work with university and external experts, while BAU staff and volunteers supported delivery. The numbered annual series provides evidence of programmed school engagement.

Evidence: BAU Third Annual Science Fair March 2023

The educational value lies in inquiry, explanation and feedback. School participants practise presenting evidence, judges ask questions, and university students can demonstrate how knowledge is used. These experiences can help young learners understand university study and scientific thinking. Scholarship awards are an additional access mechanism, rather than a substitute for the learning activity itself.

Critical thinking about social issues in 2026

BAU’s Sociology Department organised Think and Change for Grade 12 students from public and private schools. The June 2026 record reports about 500 competition participants who analysed social phenomena and proposed responses. The award ceremony brought school communities and educational representatives into the university.

Evidence: BAU Think and Change school competition June 2026

This broadens outreach beyond laboratory science. It asks young people to examine evidence about their own society, articulate a view and consider a practical response. Academic staff provide a framework for inquiry while schools contribute knowledge of their learners and community context.

Public learning and cultural participation

BAU’s Music Club and Drama Club publish arrangements for free public performances. These provide cultural learning and participation for audiences outside formal degree programmes.

Evidence: BAU free public Music Club performances | BAU free public Drama Club performances

BAU also provides onsite library access arrangements for eligible external users. Those conditions should be kept distinct from unrestricted remote access to licensed databases. A public performance, a school competition and a library visit serve different educational purposes, but together they show several ways that a university can share its resources with the wider community.

Evidence: BAU onsite book checking arrangements

Teacher development and international educational resources

School cooperation supports practical teacher preparation

On 12 May 2025, BAU signed cooperation agreements with three school organisations. They cover supervised training classes, joint workshops and educational activities, field visits and exchanges between university professors and teachers. The agreements also describe employment priority for graduates of the training programme. These are commitments within a partnership framework.

Evidence: BAU cooperation agreements with three schools

Teacher preparation benefits when university learning is connected with real classrooms and feedback from practising teachers. Schools can identify practical needs, students can observe and practise, and academic supervisors can help connect experience with educational principles. Records of completed placements and school feedback would demonstrate how the agreements work in practice.

A BAU case becomes part of an international course

The University of Lausanne identifies BAU’s Ibtihal El-Bastawissi as a Healthy Urban Systems module coordinator. The delivered Coursera syllabus includes a lesson using BAU’s Urban Lab as a systems approach case. This connects the university’s experience with a learning resource available to international audiences.

Evidence: University of Lausanne Healthy Urban Systems research project | Delivered Healthy Urban Systems course with BAU case

Child and teacher learning after the Beirut blast

UNESCO’s account of BAU’s recovery education project describes children learning through models of damaged architecture and training involving 225 teachers. The work connects cultural understanding with educational and psychosocial needs following the Beirut blast. It provides a partner record of BAU knowledge being translated into learning outside its normal degree courses.

Evidence: UNESCO BAU children and teacher recovery education project

These examples show different forms of educational collaboration. One supports future teachers through schools, another shares a university case internationally and another responds to community recovery needs. The common contribution is the design of material and experiences for a defined group of learners. Quality should be assessed through what those learners can understand or do afterwards, as well as the number reached.

New community education cooperation

BAU’s October 2026 protocol with Al-Irshad and Al-Islah Association includes joint educational activities, competitions and field training. It also provides scholarships subject to university rules. These are agreed opportunities for further delivery, rather than a retrospective count of completed programmes.

Evidence: BAU charitable association cooperation protocol October 2026

Priorities for strengthening the contribution to SDG 4

BAU’s evidence shows substantial educational provision inside and outside the university. The following recommendations would help connect access, learning quality and community relevance without treating every activity as the same form of education.

Follow the learner across the educational pathway

For enrolled students, BAU could connect support needs, participation and progression in an appropriately protected dataset. Faculty-level reviews could examine whether barriers arise in admission, digital access, assessment or placements. Student representatives should receive clear opportunities to comment on the findings and see how their feedback affects decisions.

Make public education easier to find and evaluate

A coordinated public-learning calendar could show dates, audiences, admission conditions, fees and accessibility arrangements. Programmed activities should be distinguished from individual events so that schools and community organisations can plan participation. Teaching materials that can be shared legally could remain available after an event, with contact points for follow-up.

For sustainability education, departments could identify where particular SDG concepts are taught and assessed. A course title alone is less informative than a learning outcome, an assignment and evidence that students can apply the concept. Interdisciplinary work could allow students to examine the same community problem from scientific, social and professional perspectives.

BAU’s contribution to Quality Education combines professional teaching with inclusive support, public resources and outreach. Stronger evaluation of participation and learning would help the university demonstrate how these activities improve educational opportunities for its students, staff and the wider Lebanese community.