The University of Balamand is a private institution, secular in its policies and approach to education. It welcomes faculty, students, and staff from all faiths and national or ethnic origins. The university is located in the northern district of El-Koura, Lebanon. It was founded by the OrthodoxPatriarch Ignatius IV of Antioch in 1988. The university's main campus is adjacent to Balamand Monastery, but it has two other campuses in Beirut: One is in Sin el Fil, which houses the majority of the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts, and the other neighbors Saint George Hospital in Achrafieh, which houses the faculty for medicine and medical sciences. It also has campuses in Akkar and Souk El Gharb. Formerly conceived as just a project in the Koura District, it fused administratively with the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts and St. John of DamascusInstitute of Theology to become a full-blown university. The University of Balamand was founded by the Patriarch through the concept of a Kouranian engineer called Elias Abi Chahine of Amioun, in which the concept formed between years 1983 and 1987, in the midst of the Lebanese Civil War. The project started soon after Governmental Clearance in 1988. As of 2014, the implementation of its Master Plan at the mount of long heritage, Balamand, proceeds steadily.
Name
Local legend in Lebanon reports that when Bohemond VII of Antioch escaped Latakia after it was taken by Qalawun in 1287, he hid in the village of Toula, Batroun, in the Northern Lebanese mountains. Legend has it that he lived there for a while, and produced offspring, from which the Prince, Conte, Zeeni and Aboujaoude families claim descent. The Balamand Monastery in Batroun is reputed a gift of the Prince's family, and now hosts the major University of Balamand, Balamand being a local adaptation of Bohemond.
Programs for arts and social sciences, business and management, engineering, health sciences for a new University of Balamand campus in Souk El Gharb.
A seven-story Balamand hospital in El-Koura
A museum, containing some of the most important historical documents, old pictures, and precious artifacts of the Antiochian Patriarchate Heritage
Buildings under construction
On the Main Campus:
An Engineering complex of presently two buildings: the “Riad Rizk and Khalil Rizk Civil Engineering Building,” now under construction and an Engineering building that will house the Mechanical, Electrical, and Computer engineering departments—both occupying 16,000 square meters
The Balamand Hospital will cover an area of 24,000 square meters and will be located at the hill-bottom of the main campus.
On the Souk El Gharb Campus:
One building of 6,500 square meters. *Google Earth map
“In 2014, the University of Balamand and the Dubai Investment Group agreed on terms to open a university in the Dubai Investment Park so as to serve Dubai's growing population with state of the art education. Details of this project are still under study with a master plan slated to be ready by 2015.”
