“The French-speaking community is part of our genes,” Father Salim Daccache, rector of Saint Joseph University in Beirut (USJ) told La Croix, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of this pillar of the Lebanese educational sector. Founded in 1875 by the Jesuits, USJ today includes 13 faculties, from religious sciences to medicine, including engineering, law, and literature, and 18 specialized institutes and schools on several campuses spread between Beirut and the regions of the North, South, and Bekaa.

USJ is also a hospital network across the territory, whose flagship is the Hôtel-Dieu de France, one of the leading institutions of the capital.

A complex context marks this anniversary, as Lebanon is struggling to come out of more than a year of war between Hezbollah and Israel, which has destroyed a country already brought to its knees by the economic crisis since 2019. “Terrible years,” summarized the rector.

More than half of young Lebanese study in English

USJ has gone through these trials “by fighting” to continue its primary missions, that of the “right to education” and of “supporting the middle class so that it doesn’t sink.” “This year, we awarded scholarships to nearly 6,600 students out of a total of 12,000,” Father Daccache said.

If the years of crisis have left marks, USJ is today “out of danger,” thanks to friends and networks of alumni and a helping hand “from Providence,” despite new challenges, including the decline of French speakers in Lebanon. A trend, the rector explained, due to a labor market dominated by the language of Shakespeare, notably in the Middle East and in Gulf countries.

In Lebanon, “more than 50% of schoolchildren do their studies in English during their school path,” he specified. As for the approximately 3,400 high school students graduating with a French baccalaureate, USJ attracts a thousand, the others choosing France. “After August 4, 2020 (the double explosion at the port of Beirut, Ed.), we witnessed a massive departure of young people after the baccalaureate, which deprived us of French-speaking students.”

“Our students have the chance to be trilingual – Arabic, French, English – and a language is one more opportunity. Our graduates find work within a few months in the vast majority of cases; they are recruited because they also speak French,” argued Father Daccache. “French is not just a language; it’s also a method of work, a philosophy, a different perspective on culture,” he added. At USJ, whose DNA has been French since its creation, it was necessary to adapt to this new reality, marked over the past five years.

Defending the French language in Ivory Coast and Lebanon

St. Joseph University supplemented its programs with a parallel offering in English in certain fields to accompany the decline of French speakers and respond to growing demand. “Even in those fields, we try to instill a bit of French in our students,” smiles the rector, who specifies that today, 79% of students follow undergraduate programs in French, versus 20% in English and 1% in Arabic.

Nevertheless, Father Daccache admitted to “feeling alone and not being helped as he should be,” taking a jab at France in passing, which focused its aid more on primary/secondary education than on the university network. “We are now the only university in the region whose language of communication remains French.”

French is, however, very much alive in another branch, thousands of kilometers from Beirut. In September 2024, around a hundred students started the school year at USJ–Ivory Coast in Abidjan, where four faculties were opened, thanks to the initiative and funding of Ivorian partners of Lebanese origin. “This responded to a request from Lebanese socio-economic actors who wanted to serve Ivory Coast,” explained Father Daccache.

Fifteen years ago, in Dubai, the emirate’s government approached USJ about opening a legal training center. With its universal vision, values, and expertise, USJ intends to strengthen its foundations and financial stability to last at least another 150 years.