Libyan International Medical University

The Libyan International University (Arabic: الجامعة الليبية الدولية) is a private university established in Benghazi, Libya, with the purpose of teaching medicine. It is the first private medical university in Libya.

Its doors were opened to enrolled students on October 15, 2007. According to university references, over 2700 students are enrolled in its three schools:


 * School of Medical and Health Science
 * School of Human and Social Sciences
 * School of Engineering and Technology

One of the university's major points is its focus on international partnerships and meeting the level of other international medical teaching institutes. The teaching policy emulates those of many established universities and is mainly problem-based learning.

The National Quality Assurance committee of Libya visited all the universities to evaluate them on two bases: facilities and program. The Libyan International Medical University attained a very advanced position in this evaluation in both aspects.

The Libyan Ministry of Health granted LIMU students the privilege of training at the national health care centers and hospitals.

History
The university began its activity in 2007 by opening the faculties of Medicine, Oral and Dental Medicine, Pharmacy and Basic Medical Sciences, expanding afterwards to include several different faculties, such as the faculties of Information Technology, Business Administration and Engineering. This versatility in the offered programs lead to the name being changed from "Libyan International Medical University" to simply "Libyan International University". It, however, retained the acronym "LIMU", maintaining its legacy.

The university changed its academic divisions from faculties to schools, now divided into three different schools, each hosting several programs.

Problem-based learning
Since the establishment of LIMU, a clear objective was to use the problem-based learning (PBL) system. In 2009, with the enrollment of its third batch, this system was implemented from their first semester. LIMU is the only medical university in Libya that uses this modern system and one of the handful of universities in the Arab world.

A number of researches had shown that the PBL was more effective than traditional methods of teaching medicine. Overall, it was found to promote integration of concepts in addition to increasing the skill of students with patients.