decision by top universities to adopt a new dollar exchange rate to
price tuition in Beirut’s Hamra district on December 19, 2020.
(Photo by ANWAR AMRO / AFP)
Lebanese riot police on Saturday scuffled with students
protesting a decision by top universities to adopt a new dollar
exchange rate to price tuition — equivalent to a major fee
hike.
Near the entrance of the American University of Beirut (AUB) in
the city’s Hamra district, security forces fired tear gas to
disperse protesters who were trying to approach the main gate.
Students responded by throwing water bottles and other objects
at riot police blocking their path.
It was not immediately clear if there were any injuries.
The protest came in response to a decision by AUB and the
Lebanese American University (LAU), another top private
institution, to price tuition based on an exchange rate of 3,900
Lebanese pounds to the dollar.
The nosediving currency is still officially pegged at around
1,500 pounds to the greenback.
The move has prompted fears that other universities could follow
suit, potentially leading to an exodus of students from private
institutions while public universities remain underfunded and
overstretched.
Hundreds of students had gathered in Hamra earlier Saturday in a
protest they billed a “student day of rage”.
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They chanted anti-government slogans and called for affordable
education in a country mired in its worst economic crisis since the
1975-1990 civil war.
a decision by AUB and the Lebanese American University (LAU),
another top private institution, to price tuition based on an
exchange rate of 3,900 Lebanese pounds to the dollar. Near the
entrance of the American University of Beirut (AUB) in the city’s
Hamra district, security forces fired tear gas to disperse
protesters who were trying to approach the main gate. (Photo by
ANWAR AMRO / AFP)
Later in the evening, some torched dumpsters to block the street
and vandalised banks before security forces pushed them out.
Over the past year, the Lebanese pound has lost up to 80 percent
of its value on the black market, where on Saturday the dollar was
selling for at least 8,200 pounds.
Universities have struggled to adapt to the de facto devaluation
as prices nationwide have soared.
Commercial banks have halted dollar transactions and restricted
withdrawals of Lebanese pounds, in moves that have starved many of
their savings.
According to the United Nations, more than half of Lebanon’s
population is now living in poverty.