The 1950s marked the beginning of the student movement in Lebanon, with support for public education and higher educational institutions forming the backbone of the movement and the basis of every demand. On January 23, 1951, students from Saint Joseph University carried out a strike as part of a series of large-scale student actions, demanding the creation of a Lebanese national university. On February 5, the cabinet met and issued decisions, the most important of which was the establishment of a "Lebanese University at the UNESCO Palace, with necessary funding to teach law, engineering, political sciences, mathematics, humanities, and medical research, while the fields of medicine and pharmacy would be funded through domestic and foreign grants."
After discussions in the parliament, decree No. 6267 was issued on October 20, 1951, establishing an institute called "The Higher Teachers Institute." On February 6, 1953, legislative decrees were issued formally establishing the Lebanese University. In 1959, decrees for the creation of the current faculties were issued, starting with the Faculty of Arts and Humanities.
The establishment of the Lebanese University paved the way for the rise of a strong, opposition student movement in the 1960s. The university played a central role in forming and activating the student movement and the teaching staff in the public sector and Lebanese University, becoming the decisive element in any student action. How did the student movement begin? Despite the establishment of the Lebanese University, the state followed a policy of "indifference" toward public education in general, and specifically toward the Lebanese University. This led students and professors at the university in 1967 and 1968 to carry out a series of strikes that successfully achieved several demands, including securing faculty and student participation in university management, allowing self-management of the administration through executive councils, and gaining financial and administrative independence under the supervision of these councils to prevent state interference, ensuring freedom of speech and publication, and the right to form unions.
Students did not stop there; they continued their strikes and demonstrations in 1970, forcing the state to issue decisions related to the system of scholarships for top students and the needy, sending top students abroad for specialization in various scientific fields, and issuing the law for faculty members' full-time positions. Decrees for the creation of applied faculties began to appear, and the construction of the Faculty of Sciences in Hadath was initiated as the first step toward building the university campus. A plan was also set for building the Faculty of Arts and other faculties.
In 1970, the first large-scale demonstration took place, where students shouted for 22 demands known as the "22 Charter," which included the applied faculties, university construction, the issue of graduates, participation, and other demands related to internal university conditions and deficiencies. The "22 Charter" imposed itself as a difficult equation on successive ministers, who could not stand in the way of students' insistence on achieving their demands.
The National Union of Lebanese University Students
1971 was the year of formation of the National Union of Lebanese University Students. After the decision was made under the pressure of student movements, the first executive committee of the union was elected, headed by Issam Khalifa. The internal system for Lebanese University students was established, and the right-wing coalition won against the left, before the two sides alternated victories in the following years. This showed the unity of the student union movement, where the conflict centered around programs and not sectarian issues.
This union-driven atmosphere dictated the operational mechanism, as all parties adhered to the committee's decisions despite existing differences, a principle that underpinned the conflict between the right and left and other student groups.
After the student elections in 1974, the union modified its work plan by outlining several steps to achieve its goals, including ending the open strike after realizing it could limit the effectiveness of demonstrations, organizing mass demonstrations (involving Lebanese, American, Arab, and Jesuit universities, along with some schools and universities) to the parliament with each session, escalating strikes and heading to the Ministry of Education, and "occupying" it. The authorities did not respond to students' demands and suppressed demonstrations, with security forces dispersing them. Students tried again, with protests starting from the American University toward the Ministry of Education, accompanied by acts of violence and destruction as the authorities persisted in suppressing and ignoring their demands.
With the continued pressure from the student movement, the cabinet issued a decree that year (1974) covering some demands, such as creating an engineering faculty, an agricultural faculty, and allocating funds for the construction of the university buildings, including the Faculty of Education, Faculty of Arts, and health insurance. In 1975, the last elections for the union took place before the outbreak of the civil war.
The Student Movement's Program
The existence of the union contributed to crystallizing and institutionalizing the student movement's programs and demands. The movement continued what it started in the 1960s, focusing on the demand for "democratic education." The main objective of these demands, in light of the absence of a state education policy, was to support and develop public education and expand it to meet the needs and requirements, such as creating applied faculties, completing the unified university campus for various faculties, providing student housing, establishing consumer cooperatives, expanding the full-time teaching staff, issuing conditions for entry into faculties and institutes, abolishing university entrance exams, implementing health insurance, increasing national scholarships, and creating laboratories and libraries, along with specific demands for each faculty and the school education sector (secondary, middle, and elementary). Student activism did not stop there. In 1971, the strongest student movement in the history of student struggles took place. Around 10,000 students cut off the airport road for an hour and clashed with security forces, resulting in 40 injuries. Students also took control of all the university's faculty buildings, which numbered five at the time, as well as three institutes. The university council held its first meeting with the participation of six students, and a committee of students and professors was formed to prepare an urgent bill within 24 hours to amend the Lebanese University system to include student representation in the faculties' and institutes' councils and the university's administrative council. This and other actions aimed to insist on achieving students' demands, particularly raising the level of university education in Lebanon and defending students' rights.
Following the successes of the student sectors, students held a wide referendum to approve a democratically elected student union representation formula, which was followed by securing the right to establish student unions in private and foreign universities, including the Student Council at the American University, the Student Union at the Jesuit University, the Student Union at Beirut Arab University, and the student government at the College of Beirut. Subsequently, coordination between the National Union and other unions and student organizations increased, expanding student representation to over 50 unions and associations in various sectors by 1974.
Students and Demands-based and Popular Movements
The Lebanese University students and the public sector were not the only ones in the field. The demands united all sectors and social groups. In February 1971, Lebanese University students carried out a general strike lasting more than a month, called by the union. The Jesuit University Student Union also joined the strike by declaring an open-ended strike. The American University also played a prominent role in the student movement. That same year, American University students went on a long strike to protest tuition increases, which led to clashes between security forces and demonstrators. In 1974, the American University witnessed significant security developments as security forces stormed the campus and arrested a number of students who had participated in strikes and sit-ins called by the university's student union. As a result, unions and associations expressed solidarity with the American University movement.
That period also saw protests by school students in solidarity with the American University, with security forces responding by beating and arresting students and clashing with professors, leading to several demonstrations in areas like UNESCO and Cola. On March 10, a student demonstration was suppressed, resulting in injuries.
The union continued its strike, escalating its actions to exert more pressure until its demands were met. This escalation produced results, as the parliamentary education committee, chaired by George Saadeh, was forced to hold a session on March 26, 1971, to discuss and study the Lebanese University’s demands.
The term "Year of Anger" could be applied to 1972, as the student movement played a central role in popular Lebanese movements, aligning with the general democratic popular surge, forming the vanguard of labor and popular protests, and standing in solidarity with them on issues such as rent laws and against repression.
In 1972, the "Student Committee for the Continuation of Equivalencies" called for demonstrations, with Lebanese University students organizing about 20 fly-in protests in a single day. On "Day of Anger at Universities" on April 6, American University students clashed with security forces for six continuous hours, while Lebanese University and Jesuit University students blocked several roads.
1974: The Beginning of the Union’s Fragmentation
After the right-wing coalition won the 1974 elections, disagreements began to infiltrate the union. Democratic forces issued statements criticizing what they saw as the executive committee's practices and organized grassroots movements, criticizing the new leadership for its failure to take clear stances on several popular and demand-based issues, such as the suspension of grants for students abroad, lack of solidarity with popular and labor struggles, and failure to take a stand or participate in the strike against the rent law.
These disagreements took many forms, but they did not threaten the union's existence, as they were part of the National Union's regulations, which stipulated holding two conferences for the union—one for accountability and the other for new elections every academic year.
As the new executive committee, led by the left, prepared to implement its project after the 1975 elections, the civil war broke out, and sectarian divisions began infiltrating various sectors and institutions, particularly the Lebanese University. This fragmentation severely affected the unity of the Lebanese student movement, leading to division and disintegration within its union structure.
The civil war had a profound impact on the education sector, which was a major blow to the student movement. This reality contributed to the decline of the Lebanese University and its leadership role in the 1970s. In 1977, the cabinet issued decree No. 122, which made major changes to the university's structure and reduced the powers of the university council, creating branches of the faculties. Decree No. 115 effectively dissolved the National Union of Lebanese University Students and limited its role in the university council, affecting the democratic life the university had known.
The sectarian divisions produced by the war eventually permeated the student movement, with some of its leaders participating in the civil war under party and sectarian banners. Regarding the university’s fragmentation, the number of Lebanese University branches grew to 48 across Lebanon, with each sect establishing its own student group in the areas where its branches were located.

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