The interfaculty graduate environmental sciences program of the American University of Beirut: an ESD initiative in the Arab World

Abstract

The American University of Beirut’s Interfaculty Graduate Environmental Sciences Program was launched in 1997 as a means of addressing salient issues on the environment and development in Lebanon and the Arab World using an interdisciplinary approach. The programme adopts a student-centred learning approach and aims to develop critical and systems thinking skills to produce socially and environmentally conscious leaders and agents of change in the Arab World. In this paper, we provide an evaluation of the programme’s ESD dimensions using the criteria of interdisciplinarity, local relevance and competence-based learning. This is followed by a critical analysis of the programme’s potential for use as a model in the Arab World. We find that, while the model may be useful in providing inspiration and a good practice case, its transfer “as is” to institutions of higher education in the Arab World or even in Lebanon is unlikely, and perhaps undesirable, in view of the inherently diverse nature of Arab universities.