The
American university of Beirut (AUB) has established a Graduate Council
which will coordinate graduate education and enhance research quality
and variety.
Chairing the council will be biology professor Rabih Talhouk who
brings a wealth of administrative experience and a critical
understanding of AUB’s graduate needs to this position. Talhouk has also
mentored more than 40 master’s students and has been involved in
strategic planning, university accreditation, and faculty promotion and
recruitment at AUB.
Talhouk explained that the council will be an independent unit that
reports directly to provost of the University and will help better
screen graduate applicants and subsequently enhance research quality
standards. “The council will positively enhance graduate studies and
research programs at AUB,” he said. “It will also administer unified
graduate policies and monitor the implementation of policies concerning
graduate assistantship appointments.”
The Graduate Council will work closely with faculty and school deans,
the Board of Graduate Studies, and the Faculty Graduate Studies
Committees to facilitate and coordinate graduate education, and “to
uniformly implement the rules and regulations, the policies and the
deadlines, and the standards for quality control which govern graduate
work at AUB,” added Talhouk.
The number of AUB graduate programs has grown significantly over the
year. In particular the expansion of interdisciplinary programs have
prompted the University to review the processes and policies for the
governance of graduate programs.
At present, AUB offers more than 50 master’s and PhD programs in
different disciplines, and the number of graduate students this fall
is about 1130, of whom 40 percent are graduate assistants and graduate
research assistants. The new Graduate Council will give focused
attention to their needs.
A professor of cellular and molecular biology, Talhouk has served AUB
as Chair of the Biology Department and has held leadership positions on
university committees. He is a prominent scholar with outstanding
scientific contributions to the study the role of membrane proteins in
regulating mammary growth and development and mammary epithelial cell
differentiation. He also conducts interdisciplinary research on the
anti-inflammatory activities in Lebanese plants used in traditional
medicine.