In 2013, Qamar Moukheiber, 28 years old, fled with her three children from Baba Amr in Homs, Syria, to Lebanon after the war destroyed her home. She later obtained residency from the UN Refugee Agency in Lebanon once her legal status was settled. Forced to interrupt her education due to the war, she continued her studies in Lebanon and graduated in 2019 from Al Jinan University in Tripoli with a degree in Elementary Education, as she told Silat Wassel.
Qamar’s joy upon graduation was indescribable. She received her diploma from the university and went to the Lebanese Ministry of Education and Higher Education to have it certified. However, the ministry confiscated her graduation certificate on the grounds that her Syrian high school diploma had not been officially recognized.
The Lebanese Ministry of Education imposes conditions—conditions that do not even exist within the ministry itself—for Syrian students in Lebanon to validate their secondary school diplomas. Among these requirements is proof of continuous schooling from elementary through secondary levels. Yet, Qamar and the majority of Syrian students cannot provide such records, since their schools were destroyed by the war.
Qamar explains that she was conditionally admitted to Al Jinan University with the promise of submitting the rest of her documents later. To this day, however, she is still waiting to receive her university diploma.
She adds: “Even though all my documents were certified by the Syrian regime’s embassy in Beirut, and despite obtaining a border-crossing record between Syria and Lebanon—a requirement set by the Lebanese Ministry of Education to verify the authenticity of my papers—my request to validate my high school diploma was rejected. Four years after graduation, I still do not have my university certificate.”
The Lebanese Ministry of Education requires every student holding a general secondary diploma issued by any Arab or foreign government who wishes to pursue higher education in Lebanon to submit a request to the Equivalency Committee within the ministry in order to validate their grades and diploma before enrolling in Lebanese universities.
These conditions, originally designed for Arab students, are being applied to Syrian refugees seeking university education in Lebanon, without consideration for their refugee status. This has hindered their continued enrollment in Lebanese universities. Al Jinan University in Tripoli, however, allowed Qamar to register on the condition that she would later regularize her diploma—mainly, as she put it, in order to collect tuition fees.
A 2019 study conducted by the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut revealed that the number of Syrian refugee students enrolled in Lebanese universities decreased from 187,209 in 2013 to 140,561 in 2018.
The study pointed out that “since the beginning of the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon, the government has issued no policies or decrees encouraging access to higher education for refugees. Moreover, Lebanon does not implement the International Recognition of Higher Education Qualifications Agreement, nor has it signed refugee conventions. Still, the Ministry of Education and Higher Education participates in some individual initiatives, such as the MERIC Net project—‘Integrating Syrians into Lebanese Higher Education through Recognition of Qualifications.’”
The Lebanese Ministry of Education requires every student holding a general secondary diploma issued by any Arab or foreign government who wishes to pursue higher education in Lebanon to submit a request to the Equivalency Committee within the ministry in order to validate their grades and diploma before enrolling in Lebanese universities.
“It is sometimes difficult for refugee students to obtain academic documents from the institutions they studied at because of the destruction. Nevertheless, the findings show that some private local universities register Syrian refugee students before verifying the equivalency of their transcripts or diplomas, giving them more time to secure the required documents,” the report stated.
According to the most recent assessment report on Syrian refugees in Lebanon, prepared annually by UNHCR in 2021, 65% of refugees aged between 19 and 24 are not receiving any education, with 87% of them being female.
Silat Wassel first contacted “Mais Rayan,” an official at Al Jinan University, which admits students without the equivalency of their secondary school diploma. She explained: “The ministry requires documents that we are not involved in. What we ask from students upon enrollment is the equivalency certificate. We are not concerned with elementary school records—we differ from the ministry,” said Rayan from the university’s Guidance Department.
She continued: “We know the Ministry of Education takes a long time to process equivalency requests, so we allow students to enroll for the first semester as an exception until they complete the required paperwork before the final exams. We inform students of this, and the ministry used to issue the equivalency within four months. We don’t know what has changed—it is not in our hands but in the ministry’s.”
According to the most recent assessment report on Syrian refugees in Lebanon, prepared annually by UNHCR in 2021, 65% of refugees aged between 19 and 24 are not receiving any education, with 87% of them being female.
Commenting on the enrollment of Syrian students without a validated secondary diploma, she said: “Every year, we have around 1,500 students from different nationalities, if not more. We don’t wait for the student to register—we inform them that this condition exists for admission until they complete their documents. They sign a pledge to bring the equivalency certificate, along with proof that they have applied for the validation of their high school diploma. If they fail to provide these, they cannot complete their enrollment with us.”
Rayan clarified to Silat Wassel: “The university follows up with the ministry on the documents in a formal manner. But any new requirements the ministry imposes are not our responsibility, even though they affect us. The only solution would be for the ministry to force universities to demand full academic records from students, but in that case, we ourselves would be unable to provide them.”
Racist Rhetoric… and a Winning Card
In 2020, Nour Hourieh (20 years old), a resident of Arsal on the Syrian-Lebanese border, completed her secondary education in Syria. She later sought refuge in Lebanon after the 2014 clashes in Arsal between Hezbollah and Jabhat al-Nusra.
Nour told Silat Wassel that she wanted to continue her education at the Lebanese University in Beirut. She applied through a fake number on the university’s website because the Lebanese Ministry of Education refused to grant her an official number until her high school diploma was validated—a process the ministry repeatedly rejected. The rejection was based on her lack of an official entry and exit record at the Syrian border to prove that she had sat for her Syrian high school exams in person, despite holding a residency permit through her Lebanese mother.
She added: “I had all my documents certified in August 2022 for one year. But if I don’t obtain a new equivalency by August this year to confirm them, I’ll have to recertify everything at a higher cost—$60 for each document at the Lebanese embassy in Damascus, plus $20 from Syrian government offices in Damascus for students outside Syria.”
Nour still recalls walking into the refugee registration office at the ministry to explain her case and the possibility of validating her diploma. She tried to present her situation to the officer responsible for Syrian refugee files, but the employee ignored her case and instead asked where she was from. When she answered “Arsal,” the officer refused to continue the conversation and said: “It’s obvious from the way you look.”
Lawyer and Director of the Cedar Center for Legal Studies and Human Rights in Lebanon, Mohammad Sablouh, told Silat Wassel: “Discrimination doesn’t stop at universities. It begins with schools that assign refugee students to afternoon shifts, after Lebanese students finish their morning classes. Syrian refugees are not allowed to study in the same way as Lebanese students in all schools, even though the Lebanese state has received millions of dollars for education.”
Sablouh further said to Silat Wassel: “Discrimination doesn’t stop at universities. It begins with schools that assign refugee students to afternoon shifts, after Lebanese students finish their morning classes. Syrian refugees are not allowed to study in the same way as Lebanese students in all schools, even though the Lebanese state has received millions of dollars for education.”
He added: “As for the obstacles in universities, the ministry could ease them by stopping its yearly imposition of impossible requirements on Syrian students. It should accept transcripts covering only the core levels needed to confirm completion of secondary school—not elementary school records. There should also be coordination with the Syrian Ministry of Education to establish a unified standard for diploma recognition. Unfortunately, every new minister brings measures tied to their own political bloc. Many of these blocs have been openly hostile toward Syrian refugees in Lebanon. To this day, they blame refugees for the country’s ongoing crisis, even though the presence of refugees has instead been used as a pressure card by politicians in power to secure aid.”
A Profitable Investment
On March 12, 2023, the Syrian regime’s Ministry of Higher Education imposed fees in US dollars to verify the authenticity of diplomas, graduation certificates, transcripts, or any document issued by Syrian institutes and universities, charging $20 per document.
Deputy Minister of Higher Education in the Syrian regime, Ibrahim Hanano, justified the decision in a statement to local media: “Any graduate has the right to verify any document free of charge, even if they live outside Syria. The fee was imposed to cover dealings with intermediary institutions that some entities use to extract certain papers, and these intermediaries pay the fee—not the students.”
Silat Wassel contacted Rasha Fadel, the Syrian Embassy official in Beirut responsible for student files, to inquire about the matter, but she declined to comment.
Lawyer Mohammad Sablouh commented to Silat Wassel, revealing that “both the Syrian regime and the Lebanese state profit financially from Syrian refugees in Lebanon through document authentication fees.”
Lebanon Boasts of Refugee Conventions While Violating Them
Nour’s story is not unlike that of “Jana Mohammad” (a pseudonym), 29 years old, from Saqba in rural Damascus, whose school was destroyed in the Syrian war. In 2013, she fled to Lebanon after a seven-year break from her studies.
In 2023, Jana enrolled in the Islamic University to study Psychology. She had completed her secondary education in Syria in 2014 through a “Free Learning” system run by the Churches Institute, which supports refugee students living in Lebanon.
According to Jana’s account to Silat Wassel, the Churches Institute works directly with the Syrian Ministry of Education, bringing in Syrian teachers, providing exam cards, and facilitating cross-border movement between Syria and Lebanon in coordination with the Syrian Red Crescent and other associations. The institute also arranges housing, ensures students are not pursued by security forces, and coordinates with Lebanese General Security for border passes and permits, as required by the ministry.
Although Jana had legal residency in Lebanon, a complete academic record from elementary through secondary school in Syria, official certifications from both Syrian and Lebanese authorities, and border-crossing documentation facilitated by the institute, she was still unable to obtain an elementary school transcript requested by the ministry. Her former school, Saqba Girls’ Secondary School in rural Damascus, had been destroyed by shelling. Instead, she was only given a letter confirming her attendance for those years.
When Jana went to the ministry to present her papers in case of graduation and to request her diploma, she was shocked by the employee’s response: “It’s better for you to go study in your own country.” This was despite the fact that her friend, who studied with her at the same institute, was accepted—simply because she held both Lebanese and Syrian citizenship.
Lawyer Sablouh commented: “Such rhetoric from a ministry employee violates international conventions and exposes the Lebanese state to accountability. Lebanon hosts Syrian refugees, receives aid in their name from the United Nations, and claims it is providing assistance to them.”
He explained that this rhetoric is racist and incites sectarian and confessional tensions under Lebanese law, constituting a criminal offense punishable for any employee who acts in a discriminatory or sectarian way, according to Article 317 of the Penal Code. This, he said, is a blatant violation of the international conventions that Lebanon boasts of joining.
Profit-Driven Associations
Mahmoud Manna, head of the Churches Association, told Silat Wassel: “The association’s goal is for Syrians to return and continue their studies in their own country. For those who cannot return, we try to help them enter and study in Lebanon.”
Manna considered the conditions imposed by the Lebanese Ministry of Education on Syrian refugees discriminatory, pointing out that among the requirements for diploma equivalency is a ninth-grade certificate authenticated by the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Syrian Embassy in Beirut, and the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He added: “There are students who sat for exams without having border-crossing records. We are not responsible for them. Our responsibility lies only with the students registered with us, and we provide them with border-crossing records from the time they enter Syria for exams until they return to Lebanon.”
The Lebanese Ministry of Education rejects documents issued by the Churches Association submitted by Syrian students, on the grounds that the ministry does not recognize the institute. Commenting on this, Manna said: “There is no rejection of the border-crossing records or the documents themselves because they are legal. But there is no coordination between us and the ministry, and we have no ties to it. This is their matter.”
Billions of Dollars in the Name of Refugees
A Syrian refugee in Lebanese universities pays around $1,500 for three semesters, excluding transportation, supplies, and other educational costs. At the Lebanese University, annual tuition amounts to 2,835,000 LBP, and Syrian refugees are classified under the category of Arab and foreign students, not treated the same as Lebanese students.
Dr. Maha Shuayb, Director of the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies and a lecturer at Cambridge University’s Faculty of Education, believes Syrian students should be treated differently than other Arab students. “The ministry accepted responsibility for their education when it signed agreements with international organizations, through which it received substantial funding,” she told Silat Wassel.
She added: “Although the agreement was with the United Nations for compulsory education, the ministry is still responsible for higher education. Yet, to this day, it has achieved no tangible results. Every year, foreign students are granted exemptions after a cabinet meeting in order to sit for exams. This is not an implementation of the signed agreement, but rather a request for clemency.”
A Syrian refugee in Lebanese universities pays around $1,500 for three semesters, excluding transportation, supplies, and other educational costs. At the Lebanese University, annual tuition amounts to 2,835,000 LBP, and Syrian refugees are classified under the category of Arab and foreign students, not treated the same as Lebanese students.
Dr. Maha Shuayb, Director of the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies and a lecturer at Cambridge University’s Faculty of Education, believes Syrian students should be treated differently than other Arab students. “The ministry accepted responsibility for their education when it signed agreements with international organizations, through which it received substantial funding,” she told Silat Wassel.
She added: “Although the agreement was with the United Nations for compulsory education, the ministry is still responsible for higher education. Yet, to this day, it has achieved no tangible results. Every year, foreign students are granted exemptions after a cabinet meeting in order to sit for exams. This is not an implementation of the signed agreement, but rather a request for clemency.”
A Syrian refugee in Lebanese universities pays around $1,500 for three semesters, excluding transportation, supplies, and other educational costs. At the Lebanese University, annual tuition amounts to 2,835,000 LBP, and Syrian refugees are classified under the category of Arab and foreign students, not treated the same as Lebanese students.
Dr. Shuayb revealed that the Lebanese state has received approximately $2.5 billion in funding over the past ten years, since the beginning of the Syrian refugee influx, allocated for two purposes: educating Syrian refugees and strengthening Lebanon’s overall educational system. Yet, she noted, universities have not benefited from most of these programs.
She pointed out that neither component mentioned higher education, with the focus placed solely on compulsory education. “But what kind of education is this? Is it just about getting refugees to the university gates and abandoning them there? Where is the actual benefit?” she asked.
A chart from the latest study by the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies highlighted the financial benefits of refugee education funding for Lebanon’s treasury in 2018, particularly regarding higher education.
According to Dr. Shuayb, “Lebanon signs global agreements obligating it to provide education—but only compulsory education. From this angle, the Lebanese system evades responsibility for higher education, adopts discriminatory rhetoric, and imposes laws accordingly. The question, however, is directed to the United Nations organizations investing $2.5 billion solely in basic education: are they educating to eradicate illiteracy, or are they ensuring equal opportunities? This is where discrimination lies.”
The Ministry Responds
Speaking to Silat Wassel, Albert Chamoun, media officer at the Lebanese Ministry of Education, refused to comment on the ministry’s coordination with the Syrian regime regarding the verification of student documents. He said: “Even the minister himself cannot answer this. It’s a matter of state-to-state policy. Our role is that when a student comes to certify their high school diploma, we verify it with the ministry in their country. But the student must also provide an entry and exit record to confirm their study period and residency in their home country.”
Chamoun denied knowledge of whether Syrian students lack full academic records, insisting that their enrollment is permitted only on the condition that they meet this requirement.
He added: “I’ve heard that Syrian educational centers saved their archives a year ago, and they are preserved there. Students can obtain them. If a student has a full academic record, they are treated like any Lebanese student and their diploma is validated. In fact, they sometimes have more opportunities than Lebanese students, since the ministry allowed them to apply under certain circumstances. But they only receive their diploma if they have a full record.”
He continued: “I cannot give you a complete answer. We don’t know how the Lebanese Cabinet allows them to apply and what facilitation measures it grants, nor how the ministry will cover this. That is up to the Minister of Education, who is currently abroad.”
