American University of Beirut

The Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) was established in 1954 as an independent School of Public Health, the first of its kind in the region. The name of the school was changed to the Faculty of Health Sciences in 1978 to accommodate programs in allied health.

FHS serves to educate and train professionals and competent leaders to help meet the health needs of Lebanon and the region.

In October 2006, the Public Health Program (PHP) of the Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) became accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) and was reaccredited in 2012 for seven years term extending to 2019. In December 2019, the CEPH Board voted to renew the accreditation of the program for another seven-year term ending in 2026. The PHP includes the master of public health, master of science in epidemiology, master of science in environmental health, and the PhD in epidemiology, as well as the bachelor of arts in health communication and the bachelor of science in environmental health. CEPH is an independent agency in the United States, which is recognized to accredit schools and programs of public health. The PHP at FHS was the first graduate public health program to be accredited by CEPH outside the Americas and remains the only program in the Arab region. Accreditation indicates that the PHP of the FHS meets standards for public health education of leading schools of public health in the world.

To improve the health of populations and advance the public health discipline and field of health professions in the region and beyond, through excellence in education, research, and community engagement.

The leading academic voice and driver for equity, justice, and better health in the Arab region and beyond.

FHS offers a BS degree in: environmental health, medical audiology sciences (currently frozen), medical imaging sciences and medical laboratory sciences; and a BA degree in health communication.

To be eligible for admission to the programs leading to the degree of bachelor of science, candidates must have satisfactorily completed the freshman program in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences or its equivalent with a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.3 and a minimum science GPA of 2.3.

Freshman students applying to environmental health must complete the following science requirements: CHEM 101, CHEM 101L, MATH 101. Freshman students applying to medical laboratory sciences must complete the following science requirements: CHEM 101, CHEM 101L, CHEM 102, CHEM 102L, MATH 101, MATH 102, and BIOL 101. Freshman students applying to medical imaging sciences or medical audiology sciences must complete the following science requirements: PHYS 103 and PHYS 103L, MATH 101, MATH 102, and BIOL 101.

Freshman students applying to health communication must attain a cumulative GPA of 2.3 in the freshman year and a cumulative GPA of 2.3 in English courses taken in the freshman year.

Courses taken before the students are admitted to any of the programs may be credited at the discretion of the appropriate department.

To be eligible for admission to advanced standing (second year) in science majors, a candidate must have completed the equivalent requirements for the first (or second) year of undergraduate study in the Faculty of Health Sciences in the respective major and have met the following criteria:

To be eligible for admission to advanced standing (second year) in health communication major, a candidate must have completed the equivalent requirements for the first (or second) year of undergraduate study in the major and have met the following criteria:

Students who have completed a minimum of two terms of study as sophomores or their equivalent are eligible for admission to the first year in the Faculty of Health Sciences in science majors if the following criteria are met:

Students who have completed a minimum of two terms of study as sophomores or their equivalent are eligible for admission to the first year in the health communication major if the following criteria are met:

​Admission decisions are subject to the availability of places in the desired program of study. Lebanese students must present the Lebanese Baccalaureate or its equivalent and should be considered eligible by the AUB Office of Admissions for admission to the first year in health sciences. These candidates are evaluated based on SAT I scores and school performance.

Candidates holding the Lebanese Baccalaureate Part II—literature and humanities—or its equivalent are required to take CHEM 101, 101L and MATH 101 as remedial courses if joining the environmental health or medical laboratory sciences program, or MATH 101 if joining the medical imaging sciences or medical audiology sciences program. Candidates holding the Lebanese Baccalaureate Part II—sociology and economy—or its equivalent must take CHEM 101 and 101L as a remedial course if joining the environmental health or medical laboratory sciences program.

For complete and detailed information regarding admission to AUB, including recognized certificates, see the Office of Admissions and Certificate and Class Chart sections of this catalogue.

Please refer to the section on General University Academic Information for information on attendance, classes and laboratories, examinations and quizzes, course loads, premedical requirements, incompletes, probation (placement on academic probation, removal of probation), dismissal and readmission, repeating courses, special students not working for a degree, tutorials, and withdrawal from courses.

Students can normally register for up to 18 credits per term and 9 credits during the summer term. Students who wish to register for more than 18 credits (or 9 credits in summer) must petition the appropriate faculty committee for permission to do so.

The Faculty of Health Sciences offers three minors, which require the completion of a number of courses as specified in the list below.

The minor in environmental health introduces students to the environmental system and the interactive processes that affect human health, environmental protection, and development. The minor in environmental health requires 15 credits, including the following: HPCH 205, ENHL 220, plus a minimum of 9 credits selected from the following ENHL courses: ENHL 221, ENHL 227, ENHL 231, ENHL 234, ENHL 235, ENHL 238, and ENHL 239.

The minor in public health introduces students to substantive issues and methodological approaches in ​public health. Students are given an overview of the field in HPCH 205 and an introduction to epidemiology and biostatistics in EPHD 203. For the remaining courses towards the minor, students can choose from the list of approved electives from across the disciplines of public health according to their interests. A minor in public health allows students to become more aware of the factors influencing health and hence more capable of making choices that influence their own health and that of their communities. In addition, a minor in public health expands students’ career options by exposing them to an increasingly important and expanding profession. The minor in public health is not open to students majoring in health communication.

Students will be required to take:

​The remaining 9 credits may be fulfilled through any combination of the following FHS courses (all courses are 3 credits unless otherwise noted): 

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The list of eligible electives was selected to include courses that cover broad public health content and/or introductory content to a subfield of public health. Students will be expected to develop their plan for the minor according to their interests and in discussion with the academic adviser.

The minor in humanitarian engineering and public health innovations is offered jointly by the Faculty of Health Sciences and the Maroun Semaan Faculty of Engineering and Architecture.

The minor is open to undergraduate students from all majors. It is a multidisciplinary offering that provides undergraduate students with the knowledge of the humanitarian engineering field, and equips them with the skills required to find innovative design solutions for challenges faced by disadvantaged populations taking into consideration two complementary perspectives; public health perspective and engineering perspective.

Students who complete the minor will be able to: 

The minor in humanitarian engineering and public health innovations consists of 15 credits, according to the following requirements: 

Students interested to enroll in the minor are encouraged to inform the coordinators of the program at [email protected] to benefit from adequate advising on study plans and ensure completion of all requirements.

This is a multidisciplinary course that covers fundamentals of designing solutions for health challenges faced by disadvantaged populations. It introduces tools for identifying humanitarian and/or development needs and designing practical, scalable, and sustainable solutions and interventions. The course is offered to students from all majors. Students will be exposed to health and health system challenges in addition to design fundamentals including participatory needs assessment, formal multidisciplinary design processes, and relevant technologies and tools with real world applications and case studies. Open to students in advanced standing (second and third year for three years program and third and fourth year for four years program). 

The capstone project course is an interdisciplinary service-learning design course focused on development and humanitarian engineering solutions for health challenges. In the capstone, students apply all tools learned in HEHI 201. Students work in multidisciplinary teams with disadvantaged communities, under joint supervision of at least two mentors from MSFEA, FHS, and other faculties. The capstone is divided into two sub-courses, HEHI 202A (1cr.) and HEHI 202B (2cr.), and must be registered in two consecutive terms. HEHI 202A has as a prerequisite: HEHI 201. HEHI 202B has as a prerequisite: HEHI 202A.

Upon prior approval of the students’ adviser and the coordinators of the humanitarian engineering initiative, students who are required, as part of their degree requirement, to complete a capstone or final year project, can count that experience towards fulfilling the capstone requirement for the minor.

To graduate with the minor, students must attain a minor GPA of 2.3 or more to satisfy its requirements.

Students can opt for a certificate in humanitarian engineering and public health innovations. The “Humanitarian Engineering and Public Health Innovations” certificate requirements are:

​Students should declare the certificate before completing the requirements.

Upon prior approval of the students’ adviser and the coordinators of the humanitarian engineering initiative, students who are required, as part of their degree requirement, to complete an internship or practicum, can also count that experience towards fulfilling the internship requirement for the certificate.

This course will introduce students to the COVID-19 pandemic as both a global and regional public health crisis, with a focus on prevention, mitigation, and impact. Geographically, it would focus on low and middle-income countries across the Global South and with a particular emphasis on the Arab region. The course will offer an intersectional analysis of the structural inequalities exposed by COVID-19, both in terms of differential vulnerability to and consequences of the pandemic by gender, age, socio-economic class, ethnicity, race, and immigrant/refugee status. Drawing on recent research by FHS and AUB faculty members, lectures will examine some of the historical, economic, epidemiological/health sector and social aspects of the pandemic and explore policy responses across various contexts. The course will additionally address the myriad gendered consequences of lockdown measures adopted to combat the pandemic, such as poor mental health outcomes, the rise in gender-based violence, disruptions to education and loss of income, among others. Focusing on Lebanon as a case study, the course will also analyze the impact of the concomitant public health and economic crises on the health sector, exploring the burden on fragile health systems as well as the diversion of already-precarious healthcare resources from “nonessential” services.​