Saint Joseph University of Beirut
private Catholic research university in Beirut, Lebanon
Saint Joseph University of Beirut (Arabic: جامعة القديس يوسف في بيروت; French: Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth, commonly known as USJ) is a private Catholic research university in Beirut, Lebanon, founded in 1875 by French Jesuit missionaries and subsidized by the Government of France during the time when Lebanon was under Ottoman rule.
As the oldest French university in Lebanon, it promotes Lebanese culture and upholds a policy of equal admission opportunity without consideration of ethno-religious affiliations. It advocates trilingual education, offering instruction in Arabic, French, and English. It is known in Lebanon and the Middle East for its university hospital, the Hôtel-Dieu de France, and for its Faculty of Law, modern Lebanon's oldest law school and the first law school in Lebanon since the ancient Roman law school of Berytus.
The 12,650-student enrollment is served by an academic staff of 2,000 and a support staff of 540, distributed over its 13 faculties, 24 institutes and schools, across five campuses in Beirut, with regional university centers in Sidon, Tripoli, and Zahlé, as well as one foreign center, the USJ-Dubai, located in Dubai, UAE.
USJ is the only university in the Middle East and the Arab world to follow the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS), as well as having official recognition and compliance with the higher education regulations of Lebanon. USJ has partnerships with over 275 institutions in 42 countries, including Francophone, Jesuit, and Arab universities.
History
In 1839, French Jesuit missionaries, including Maksymilian Stanisław Ryłło, came to Beirut and established a modest French Catholic school. Later, in 1855, the Jesuits founded a bigger seminary-college in Ghazir. The seminary moved to Beirut in 1875, where it merged with the first school established earlier in 1839. Public authorities quickly graced the new school with the title of "university," which allowed it to grant academic degrees, with a focus on doctoral degrees in philosophy and theology.
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Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1430954. VIAF identifies the subject as 142598975. The Library of Congress control number is n80105080. Authority coordinates are 33.890, 35.509. 3 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1875, 1839 and 1855.
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This entry incorporates text from “Saint Joseph University of Beirut” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.