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The purpose of this study was to assess nutrient intakes in elderly living in Lebanese nursing homes (NHs).

This cross-sectional study was conducted in 36 long-term care institutions from all over Lebanon. Out of 2,094 residents, 98 (69 women and 29 men) elderly met the inclusion criteria and successfully completed the interview question. Dietary food intake was assessed using the 24-h food recall. The analysis used a Chi-square test and independent samples t-test or Mann–Whitney test, as appropriate.

A high percentage of elderly (reaching 100 per cent) had a low intake of energy, protein, linolenic acid, linoleic acid, fibers, vitamins and minerals, and the prevalence of nutrient inadequacy was significantly different between sexes for copper intake (p = 0.02). The results of this study highlight the nutrient inadequacies among the majority of elderly living in long-term care institutions and particularly in women and elderly residing in NHs located away from the capital Beirut.

This study is quite original; this is the first study performed nationwide in Lebanon covering not only the largest number of NHs in various locations but also elderly under custodial settings and with diverse backgrounds.

The purpose of this paper is to assess student perceptions of their engagement in tangible and intangible higher education services using the College Student Experiences Questionnaire (CSEQ).

The research draws on a random sample of students without disabilities and all students with disabilities in a public university in Qatar. Group comparison analysis is conducted to find differences between the two groups by adapting the CSEQ to assess student perceptions of engagement with the services.

The findings showed that students with disabilities were less satisfied with intangible services in learning systems. Students with and without disabilities felt that the campus facilities were below average; students with disabilities rated university services lower than students without. All students felt that the learning systems were above average, with higher ratings among students without disability.

Considerable work needs to be done in capacity and professional development with faculty to deal with learning and teaching methods with students with disabilities.

In general, this study compares students with disabilities with non-disabilities. Both groups confront barriers to access learning and to the assessment of their learning. They both were satisfied with services but with higher perceptions of engagement among those with non-disabilities. Higher education institutions must consider those services in unison to both groups treating both equally, recognizing that a discourse of differences may pit one group over another in infrastructure and the institutional services provided.

The purpose of this study is to establish a set of measurable criteria for elderly nursing homes (ENHs) in Lebanon. Donabedian's model known by structure/process/outcome was used as the driving conceptual framework for the study.

The study reports on a panel discussion where administrators, caregivers and specialists, separately established and exchanged key information on best practice approach. The work was carried out in the summer of 2008, using the consensus panel method. A group of expert opinions (Dalkey) made up of elderly home administrators and caregivers, policy makers, and academics discussed specific key issues related to elderly health and quality of life.

A total of 40 criteria were retained along seven main dimensions: types of elderly homes; funding; health services; boarding services; activities; structures; and elderly rights.

A major limitation in this study is that elderly were not part of the consensus making process. Thus, including elderly in the process would have substantiated and added validity to the established criteria.

The criteria developed in this study can be turned into key performance standards for elderly homes in Lebanon, other Mediterranean and Arab countries. These criteria would greatly benefit elderly homes if validated and used as guidelines for quality care.

The study is original in the sense that it seeks to establish measures for criteria, a blueprint, and benchmarks for ENH standards.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the levels of foundation‐year courses at the only public, four‐year institution of higher education in Qatar.

A basic crossed design was used to assess the degree to which the number and kind of foundation courses taken related to student enrollment, graduation, academic dismissal and academic performance. A chi‐square statistical analysis, Kruskal‐Wallis analysis of variance (ANOVA) and a repeated measure (MANOVA) were used to address the research questions.

The results of this study demonstrate that those students who are enrolled in an English foundation course and take at least one or more foundation course are more likely to remain enrolled in the university. In contrast, those students who enroll in more than one mathematics foundation course are more likely to be academically dismissed than to remain at this university. Students who pass through preparatory courses in English have higher scores in both their first and second post‐foundation English courses than those who do not participate in the program. In contrast, students who take foundation courses in mathematics were less likely to do well in post‐foundation courses than those who had not taken foundation courses. Those students who had taken an English foundation course were more likely to fail a post‐foundation course at the university level than to pass such a course. Those students who had taken a mathematic foundation course were just as likely to fail as those students who had not taken one. Generally, those students who went through English and mathematics foundation courses were more likely to perform at a significantly higher level and achieve a higher grade point average than those students who did not complete the preparatory program.

A significant role of the preparatory program is to bring students to an academic level that allows them to continue on to regular university programs. This paper is significant because it assesses the worth and benefits of a preparatory program in a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) country, which include Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The first encounter of students at universities is the administrative office, which leaves a lasting imprint for their entire experience in higher education. With the exponential growth of higher education in the Middle East, private universities face hardened competition in the overall retention of students. Registrar and academic advising offices are vital components to the university as well as the front end to the universities’ service quality. This study attempts to measure student attitudes of registration and academic advising across different faculties to assure positive quality service complementing that of the academic. Keeping in mind that many developing universities in the Middle East and other nations have not yet utilized automated services to meet student needs, the present study provides recommendations in the inroads en route to the development of touch‐tone and Web‐banner automated registration for a positive assessment of service quality.

The study examines the level of satisfaction amongst Lebanese university graduates on their training/education in light of their current occupational level.

Focus groups were interviewed to understand factors that helped graduates in their occupation. These factors were turned into a Likert‐scale questionnaire in which a large sample (n=604) of university graduates from public and private universities in Lebanon were asked to report the utility of their university education and training required for their current job.

Findings showed that graduates from private universities documented greater satisfaction in their education and training, especially in the fields of engineering, medicine, and information science, than did graduates from the public sector of higher education. Graduates in the low occupational status category perceived university education as important in the performance of their occupation.

The study was intended to find if graduates' were satisfied with their university education. Satisfaction in that sense is used as a proxy for quality. The need to refine the concept of quality in higher education is recommended in any future study to provide a possible measure of value to higher educational training.

Importantly, public higher education in Lebanon need to compete aggressively with private institutions to provide key “soft skills” needed at the work place.

The paper offers some empirical data in an under‐researched field.

This study sought to analyze university graduate job attainment in Lebanon through an individualist, societal and structuralist perspectives. Differences appeared between females and males on factors that predicted occupational attainment. In concert with neo‐patriarchal discourse increased occupational attainment among males was significantly predicted by fathers’ occupational status. The data reported that male and female university degree type produced higher occupational attainment between male and female graduates. Further analysis would seek to understand graduate attitudes towards their occupational attainment along individualist, societal and structural dimensions.

The purpose of this paper is to assess quality of life in relation to wellbeing among Lebanese nursing home elderly residents. The study attempts to understand the impact of structures, processes and skills on elderly health status.

In this paper, 220 normally functioning elderly respondents from 33 nursing homes were studied. A quasi‐experimental approach measured psychological and health‐related factors using the Geriatric Depression Scale, Activity of Daily Living, EuroQol EQ‐5D and the Mini‐Nutritional Assessment (MNA) instruments.

A relatively high level of mild depression among elderly residents and a lack of mobility were found. Generally, normally functioning elderly residents were well nourished and had moderate daily activity levels.

The study is original in the sense that it assesses elderly residents' psychological and physical health status in relation to institutional structures, processes, and skills.

The purpose of this paper is to survey students on their satisfaction with university services and programs in a coeducational Lebanese Catholic higher education institution. The study attempts to relate self‐assessed knowledge of the university procedures, rules and regulations on six dimensions of satisfaction, being: academic experience, academic advisor, residential life, campus life, personal development opportunities, resources and student services.

A cluster random selection procedure was used to select n=870 students from within the university. Students rated 31 knowledge items and 33 satisfaction items. The study analyses student satisfaction in relation to their knowledge of procedures, rules and regulations. An Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was run to determine differences between university class level, and knowledge level on satisfaction. In addition, a regression analysis was run to determine whether university class (freshmen, sophomore, junior, and senior level) and knowledge level (low, middle and high knowledge levels) were predictors of the satisfaction dimensions.

Generally, those who assessed their knowledge (of the services) as higher were more inclined to be satisfied. In addition, seniors in general were less satisfied with programs and services than freshmen students. Self‐rated knowledge and university level (freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors) significantly predicted satisfaction with both variables being highly associated (i.e. predicting) with satisfaction in academic advising.

Self‐enhancement theory suggests that those individuals with greater self‐worth have greater affective need to feel satisfied. Increased self‐worth is manifested in active roles of decision making and judgments about events that the individual experiences (Wells and Sweeney, 1986). Thus, self‐worth is highly correlated with knowledge about an aspect. This study shows that knowledge is an important predictor to satisfaction – i.e. the higher the knowledge the more satisfied students are likely to be.