A press conference was held in the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK), on the occasion of the Institutional Evaluation Program completion, conducted through the expertise of the European University Association (EUA), a main body of Higher Education in Europe. The said Evaluation Program lasted for an entire year. This association aims mainly to guarantee the realization of the predetermined missions and objectives. It also seeks to ensure the conformity of its academic and administrative activities with the European standards of Quality Assurance.

USEK is the first university in the Middle East that conducts such an Institutional evaluation program through the EUA. This association has developed more than 250 university evaluation programs all over the world, notably in Europe. Following the autoevaluation phase which extended over more than 6 months, USEK hosted, twice, a team of 5 experts from the EUA:

• Professor Ustün Ergüder, President of Bogaziçi University in Turkey, President of the Evaluation Committee
• Professor Jethro Newton, Dean of Learning and Teaching, University College Chester, England
• Professor Carles Solà, former President of Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Minister of Universities in Catalan (2003-2006), Spain
• Professor Philippe Rousseau, former President of the University of Lille III, France
• Mr. Tobias Walser, student at the Swiss Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland

The experts did not only evaluate the action plan and the applied practices inside the university, but they have also met the majority of officials, a group of students, as well as different stakeholders involved in the university community (Director of Higher Education in Lebanon, representatives of NGOs and associations, entrepreneurs, etc.). The President of the evaluation committee, Professor Ustün Ergüde, noted that the decision of auto-evaluation taken by USEK and the will to discover its points of strength and weakness clearly reveals the strategic vision of the University’s leadership. Furthermore, the experts praised the University’s constructive policy as well as its financial aid policy. The latter clearly reflects the social responsibility that USEK proudly assumes.

Fr. Hady Mahfouz, Rector of USEK, sincerely thanked the team of experts for their valuable recommendations as well as the USEK family for the efforts they invested in this program. He underlined the fact that USEK has been seeking throughout this initiative to prove the importance of Quality Assurance in the Lebanese university milieu, since it contributes to the construction of societies as well as to the development of human beings and the respect of their rights. He also highlighted that the undertaken procedure has reinforced and consolidated the dialogue between the university and its stakeholders. Moreover, Fr. Mahfouz drew attention that the Quality Assurance is more than a mere complementary project that the university aims to realize. It is indeed an obligation that USEK is striving to properly fulfill. As for the European experts in Higher Education, they emphasized the responsibility that a university should assume regarding Quality Assurance and the necessity to form in each university qualified teams in charge of the issue in hands. At USEK, a team of more than 10 instructors was formed in 2008 within the framework of a European program that works on Assurance Quality in universities. These instructors received training sessions in Italy, upon which the USEK “Assurance Quality Office” opened its doors.

A lunch was held afterwards in honor of the experts and other guests.