The University of Balamand is a private institution, secular in its policies and approach to education. It welcomes faculty, students, and staff from all faiths and national or ethnic origins. The university is located in the northern district of El-Koura, Lebenon. It was founded by the Orthodox Patriach Ignatius IV of Antioch in 1988. The university’s main campus is adjacent to Balamand Monastery, but it has two other campuses in Beirut: One is in Sin el Fil, which houses the majority of the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts, and the other neighbors Saint George Hospital in Achrafieh, which houses the faculty for medicine and medical sciences. It also has campuses in Akkar and Souk El Gharb.
Formerly conceived as just a project in the Koura District, it fused administratively with the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts (ALBA) and Saint John of Damascus Institute of Theology to become a full-blown university.
The University of Balamand was founded by the Patriarch through the concept of a Kouranian engineer called Elias Abi Chahine of Amioun, in which the concept formed between years 1983 and 1987, in the midst of the Lebanese Civil War.The project started soon after Governmental Clearance in 1988.
