The Renault Foundation and Saint-Joseph University in Lebanon have launched the Chair and the Masters Degree in Management of Road Safety opening the door for Gulf and Middle Eastern countries to study road safety from an academic viewpoint. The programme was launched during a ceremony held at the Francois S. Bassil Auditorium at the University under the patronage of his Excellency Mr Najib Mikati, President of the Council of Ministers of Lebanon.
The degree programme was launched in Lebanon at the University Saint-Joseph.
The Masters course is accredited by the Lebanese authorities, opening the way for its recognition in other countries. It is due to start in September 2012.
Recruitment of students has started and the University have already received applications from Lebanon, Morocco, Algeria, Palestine, and Yemen. However, the University Directors would like to widen their recruitment to other countries.
The vision is to bring road safety under control throughout the region and to develop an intra- and inter-regional information and exchange system for road safety knowledge and best practice. The educational and research programmes will present state of the art knowledge to accompany countries in their approach to a safe and sustainable mobility. It can be adapted and repeated in other areas of the world
The programme is for a multidisciplinary academic and research Chair:
- proposed by the Renault Foundation and Saint-Joseph University, Beirut
- for the Middle East and Gulf State countries
- to meet local and regional capacity development and reinforcement needs
- involving stakeholders from the public, private and civil society sectors
- working to contribute towards the resolution of an identified and increasing road safety problem.
The programme is to be launched at the beginning of academic year 2012-2013 for an initial duration of 5 years.
One of the main motivations behind this launch is to combat the amount of road deaths facing the Middle East where road crashes are particularly high:
