On April 26, 2012, the Secretariat General of the Arab Society of Faculties of Business, Economics and Political Sciences (BEPS), whose permanent headquarter is the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK), has announced the conclusion of a reciprocal membership agreement with the UK’s Association of Business Schools (ABS).

The UK’s Association of Business Schools (ABS) had earlier announced its first major overseas alliance with the Association of Asia Pacific Business Schools, which represents business schools in 15 countries, including Australia, China, India, Japan and Singapore.

It is worth mentioning that BEPS has around 50 member institutions throughout the Middle East, including Algeria, Sudan, Libya and Bahrain. ABS and BEPS together represent nearly 200 business schools and more than 510,000 business and management students.

Angus Laing, Chairman of the ABS and Dean of the School of Economics at Loughborough University stated that the alliance came at a pivotal point for management education. “This development will ensure that the UK and Middle East and North Africa have a closer bond that the business and management community will benefit from accordingly, as well as providing us with an unrivalled opportunity to develop new ways of working and capacity build in the region”, he added. In turn, Dr. Nehme Azouri, Secretary General of BEPS and Dean of the Faculty of Business and Commercial Sciences of USEK, stressed that such an Arab Society of Faculties of Business, Economics and Political Sciences agreement reflects the openness policy that, since its foundation, the University adopts towards all concerned parties in the field of Business, whether Arab or foreign, in order to achieve developments and exchange experience in this field.