Grants and Writing Resources for American University of Beirut

On May 29, 2025, AUB's Faculty of Arts and Sciences gave its students 66 awards worth $70,280 in total, and one graduating student received the Penrose Award, given to the outstanding graduate in each faculty. Several of those awards are for a thesis or a paper. The Salim Ali Salam Endowed Award, for one, goes to the author of the best graduate thesis in Ottoman or Arab studies.

Writing Prizes

Several FAS prizes go to student writers. The Murad Al-Akl Literary Award, established in 1945, is decided by competition on a set subject, and essays compete alongside speeches and debates. Students who write in Arabic can aim for the Dr. Asaad Khairallah Endowed Award in Social Sciences, given for the best paper a student submits in Arabic during their studies, while the Anwar Salman Award in Literature goes to a graduating Arabic student with creative writing skill and strong research on poetry.

Gender studies has its own prize. The Randa Bdeir Award in Gender Equity goes to the undergraduate or graduate student from SOAM or CAMES who writes the best paper on gender studies, and the Kamel Mrowa Award in Media Studies recognizes the most creative and insightful project on Arab media, which can be a scholarly paper or a film.

Thesis and Graduate Paper Awards

Graduate theses are judged separately. The Salim Ali Salam Endowed Award goes to the author of the best graduate thesis in Ottoman or Arab studies. In physics, the Best Physics Thesis Award honors a master's or PhD student whose research is matched by care in writing and defending the thesis, and the Department of Education's Dr. Fuad Said Haddad Award in Education goes to the graduate student who writes its best thesis.

Two prizes reward graduate papers. The Antoun Saadeh Cultural Foundation Best Student Essay Award recognizes the best graduate paper or thesis on social reform in the Arab world. Graduate students from or living in the Global South can win the Poet Said Fayad Graduate Prize in Literature and Humanities by submitting the best paper to the Al-Abhath Essay Prize Competition.

Research Funding and Conferences

The University Research Board's Graduate Student Conference Award helps master's and PhD students present their own research at national, regional or international meetings, as a talk or a poster. It covers registration and, where they apply, travel, hotel, visa costs and poster printing, up to $2,000 for Europe and the MENA region or $2,500 elsewhere. Each student can receive it once. For longer-term support, the Graduate Council reports that most PhD students hold fellowships with full tuition waivers and stipends.

Students can also present on campus. The Kamal A. Shair Central Research Science Laboratory marked its 25th anniversary with a CRSL Research Conference in 2026 with oral presentations, a poster session, and Best Talk and Best Poster awards for presenters drawn from AUB's researchers, faculty and students.

Help With Writing

AUB's Writing Center offers individual tutoring in English or Arabic to students, staff and faculty. According to the graduate catalogue, its peer tutors include both undergraduate and graduate students, consultations and workshops cover writing projects at any stage of development, and appointments are booked online. The Center has run since 2004. Its office is in the West Hall basement.

Publishing and Theses

Outlook, AUB's independent student weekly, first appeared in November 1949 and describes itself as the first official independent student paper. It welcomes all contributions.

Finished theses go into AUB ScholarWorks: depositing there is the final step of thesis submission to the Library, and the student uploads the thesis with its signed approval page and release form. The Library's Theses and Dissertations collection in Archives and Special Collections holds about 10,000 titles dating from 1906, all cataloged and digitized. AUB users can download authorized theses with their AUBnet account.

If you'd like an editor's eye on a thesis chapter or a research paper before it goes out, we can help. See our American University of Beirut dissertation and thesis editing and American University of Beirut essay editing pages, or write to editors@editorsforstudents.com.