October 8, 2026
The file of appointing a new president for the Lebanese University tops the agenda of the cabinet session scheduled to be held tomorrow, in light of an escalating political and legal crisis coinciding with the end of the term of the current university president, Dr. Bassam Badran, on the tenth of October, and the absence of political consensus until now regarding the mechanism for resolving eligibility.
The data indicate that there is a proposal to reappoint Badran for a second term, at a time when the Minister of Education, Rima Karami, expresses her rejection of this option, insisting on the necessity of studying the names of the candidates according to the approved mechanism, which heralds heated discussions within the cabinet table regarding the legal and political formula for the decision.
This entitlement came back to the fore after the nominations were officially opened last July and 13 candidates applied to choose a short list of five names to be presented to the government. However, the complications resulting from the absence of the League Council, in addition to the controversy over the legality of Badran’s candidacy for a new term, kept the file pending until the last days of the current president’s term.
The sensitivity of the file doubled following the decision of the Constitutional Council issued last September to invalidate two legal articles that allowed for the extension of Badran’s term and granting him the right to run for a second term. Which returned the file to its basic constitutional path, requiring a new and direct decision from the Council of Ministers.
In light of the Minister of Education’s adherence to her position demanding that all the names of the candidates be presented and not limit the discussion to the person of the current university president, the option of resorting to voting within the council in the event that political consensus is not possible emerges, which makes tomorrow’s session a turning point for determining the fate of the academic presidency.
In light of these data, discussions intersect around three main scenarios for tomorrow’s session: either agreeing on the renewal of Dr. Bassam Badran, agreeing on an alternative name from among the candidates, or resorting to a ministerial vote in the event of continued political impasse.
With the end of Badran’s term, the government faces urgent time pressure to avoid entering into an administrative vacuum in which the “senior dean” assumes the management of the university. This entitlement turns into a real test of the executive authority’s ability to decide on academic appointments in isolation from political tensions, in light of the continuing intersection between legal complexities and political differences.
