With the start of the new academic year, the demand movement of Lebanese University professors is escalating in light of the continued stagnation in the sabbatical issue, which has been faltering for years. The comprehensive strike entered various colleges and branches, accompanied by a series of movements and sit-ins carried out by the Contracted Professors Committee in a number of regions, including the Rafik Hariri University Complex in Hadath, and the Faculty of Arts in Deir al-Qamar in Mount Lebanon Governorate, in addition to movements in Tripoli and the Bekaa, raising the slogan: “The time for decisive action has come… no postponement after today.”
In this context, a member of the Contracted Professors Committee, Dr. Muhammad Shukr, explained in a statement to Lebanon Debate that the strike greatly affects the start of the academic year in various colleges. Regarding the course of the government file, Shukr indicated that the Council of Ministers had previously informed the professors of including the file in the session that followed the last session, but it granted an additional period of one month to the concerned minister for the purpose of re-reading the names and revising them carefully, and avoiding any possible errors in light of the connection with the full-time decision dated 1/1/2027, and taking into account the possibility of some professors reaching retirement age or changing their situations during the next three months. Shukr expressed his expectations that the file would be included on the agenda of the first cabinet session to be held in October, vowing to organize a massive sit-in to pressure its approval.
In conjunction with these movements, the Contracted Professors Committee carried out a sit-in before noon today at the Hadath University Complex, where Dr. Elie Lattouf read a statement on behalf of the professors in which he stressed that their patience had run out after long years of working in harsh professional and living conditions and the absence of job stability.
The statement stressed that the sabbatical file represents a national and educational issue par excellence, as the stability of the professor is linked to the stability of the university, protecting the quality of education, and preserving the future of students. The committee firmly called for the file to be approved in the next session of the Council of Ministers without any procrastination or new pretexts, with the necessity of publishing the full names in the Official Gazette to close the waiting page once and for all, warning that any additional postponement would only deepen the suffering of professors and keep the future of the academic edifice in limbo.
