Registrar’s Office

Minimum Residency Requirements

Students must spend a defined minimum number of semesters at LAU before they can graduate. This condition is set as per the decrees issued by the Lebanese Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEHE) for each program.

For undergraduate degrees, semesters are defined as follows:

  • Fall and spring semesters are considered as regular semesters on condition that a minimum of 12 credits were taken in each semester.
  • Summer semesters may be considered as half regular semesters under the discretion of MEHE, on condition that a minimum of 6 credits were taken (i.e. 2 summer semesters with minimum 6 credits each can be added up to be considered as 1 regular semester)

For graduate degrees, semesters are defined as follows:

  • Fall and spring semesters are considered as regular semesters.
  • Summer semesters may be considered as half semesters (i.e. 2 summer semesters can be added up to be considered as 1 regular semester).

Students can view whether their residency requirement was met on their CAPP Degree Evaluation. Please note that this field is automatically updated at the end of each semester.

  • Residency requirements for undergraduate students vary, ranging from a minimum of 3 to 5 years, depending on the program in which the student is enrolled in.
  • Residency requirements for graduate students requires a minimum of 2 years at LAU.
  • Professional schools have different residency requirements, as stated in their programs.

Please refer to your program’s department at your school in case you have any inquiries regarding your residency at LAU.

Additional Residency Rules:

  • Students admitted in the Freshman Arts/Freshman Science programs must complete two additional regular semesters to fulfill the residency requirement.
  • Students who previously earned a bachelor’s degree, and are following a second degree, are required to complete at least 45 additional major credits for the second degree. An additional minimum residency of three regular semesters (beyond the first degree) is also required. Some programs may exceptionally require 42 additional major credits (instead of 45 credits), such as the BA in Psychology and the BA in Political Science-International Affairs.