Frequently Asked Questions

All MENA PAIR applicants need to meet AUB graduate requirements. An applicant is considered for admission if he/she fulfills the following requirements:

• Cumulative grade point average of at least 80 percent (or standardized equivalent from other institutions of higher learning) leading to a Bachelor’s degree or its equivalent from recognized institutions of higher learning.
• An official transcript of university records submitted with the application.
• At least two recent letters of recommendation from a mentor and/or employer submitted with the application.
  • Letters of recommendation should be addressed to MENA PAIR Admissions Committee. Letters of recommendations should be requested from mentors weeks before the application. Generic and/or outdated letters will be downgraded. It is the applicants’ responsibility to follow up with their mentors to verify that recommendation letters are submitted in a timely manner.
• A statement of purpose (~400 words) indicating the following:
  • Your focused interest within the field of Injury
  • oPrevious academic, professional, and/or extracurricular experiences that demonstrate your interest in health/injury research
  • Career plans upon completion of the MENA PAIR program (both short and long term)
  • Do not underestimate the importance of the statement of purpose
• A recent CV highlighting applicant's research/work experience (uploaded along with the application)
• Applicants should demonstrate RUSE (Readiness for University Study in English)
• Applicants from non-English-speaking countries must show proficiency in the English language. A score is considered satisfactory if it meets or exceeds the minimum requirement set by AUB; it is considered valid if the test date is recent enough. Each test has its separate requirement for achieving satisfactory and valid scores, as detailed in the above link. Further details on graduate admissions are available in AUB graduate catalogue and graduate regulations.

MENA PAIR is open for applicants with injury interest from diverse backgrounds including Public Health, Medicine, Nursing, Psychology, and Engineering with interest in safety and injury prevention. Applicants should meet the requirements specified by AUB graduate admissions, MENA PAIR, and SHARP to be eligible to apply. These requirements include good academic record and proficiency in English.

Only 6th and 7th year medical students at the Lebanese University are eligible to apply for the Diploma in Injury Research.

Regarding MSc program, in order to be qualified for admission, you have to graduate from medical school and receive your Medical Degree.

If applicants are enrolled for a Diploma in Injury Research, they will earn 12 credits during the course of their study. These credits can be counted towards their master’s degree. However, in order to join the master's program, you have to reapply for AUB graduate admission.

Current MPH students are eligible to apply for the Diploma program. Also, you could apply for PhD in Injury after earning your MPH degree.

Diploma program: Two formats available:

• In-person (7- week intense summer / classes start June 13)
• Online (two terms/ classes start August 29)

MSc program: 2-year program

• Classes start August 29

PhD program: 5-year program

• Classes start August 29

All applicants are requested to demonstrate RUSE upon receiving their admissions decision and prior to enrollment. Tests that can be taken to demonstrate RUSE:

• DUOLINGO English Test (DET)
• AUB-EN
• TOEFL
• IELTS
• GRE
• GMAT

A score is considered satisfactory if it meets or exceeds the minimum requirement set by AUB; it is considered valid if the test date is recent enough.

Test	Minimum Score	Validity
AUB-EN	40	1 year
TOEFL iBT	97	2 years
IELTS (Academic)	7	2 years
GRE (Verbal)	147	5 years
GMAT (Verbal)	25	5 years
DUOLINGO English Test (DET)	120	2 years

All graduate applicants are required to demonstrate Readiness for University Study in English (RUSE). Master’s, MD, or PhD applicants who have graduated from AUB or from a recognized college or university in US/UK/Canada/Australia/New Zealand are exempted from demonstrating RUSE.

Diploma trainees will enroll in the SHARP 12- credit diploma at AUB. Trainees will also receive additional training and mentorship in injury research from both institutions AUB and Yale. Curriculum is available on SHARP website.

MENA PAIR MSc and PhD students will attend the MSc in Epidemiology and PhD in Epidemiology courses respectively. Trainees will also receive additional training and mentorship in injury research from both institutions AUB and Yale. Trainees have to attend the Summer Intensive Workshops at Yale every summer for the duration of their degree. For further information, please visit the AUB website.

Full tuition and fees will be paid by the MENA PAIR program for applicants successfully selected by the MENA PAIR committee.

Full tuition and fees will be paid by the MENA APIR program for applicants successfully selected by the committee.

In addition, MSc and PhD trainees will receive sponsorship that covers: Travel to Yale University for Summer Intensive Workshops in injury research, monthly stipend, and support for publication of research findings in scientific journals and presentations at scientific conferences.

The Diploma in Injury Research is built upon the SHARP Diploma plus an additional training in injury research, however MENA PAIR trainees will have to attend extra courses and mentorship related to injury research. Applicants will need to meet SHARP and MENA PAIR admission requirements, and should be accepted by BOTH the SHARP and MENA PAIR admissions committees.

Applicants to the diploma program should apply to MENA PAIR only via the program’s application portal. There is no need to apply for AUB graduate admissions if applicants are applying for the diploma track only.

Letters from applicant’s mentors can be sent directly to MENA PAIR email address (mena.pair@yale.edu ) and should have the applicant’s NAME and LETTER OF REFERENCE in the subject line. In addition, applicants may upload the letters directly along with the applicant’s online application.

All letters MUST be signed, dated, and scanned.

A transcript is a printed document that shows the applicant’s academic records. It should include the courses taken at a given educational institution and the earned grades. It should include the applicant's name as well as the institution name.

Applicants should upload a scan of their official transcript (on University stationary with any official seals).

• Screenshots are not acceptable
• Applicants do NOT need to courier the physical transcripts but should retain them for review upon request

MENA PAIR is a multi-disciplinary training program for trauma and advanced injury research. It addresses injuries from a public health perspective and covers diverse injury research areas including: Injury Epidemiology, Injury Prevention and Intervention, Design and management of injury surveillance systems, Occupational Injury, Road Traffic Injury, Child Injury.

MSc and PhD classes are held in-person. Regarding the Diploma program, two formats are available: in-person (7- week intense summer) and online (two terms).

MENA PAIR PhD program is the PhD program in Epidemiology at the AUB Faculty of Health Sciences with an emphasis in Injury Research.

The summer training workshop will be in-person at Yale University. MENA PAIR program will offer candidates sponsorship that covers the travel expenses to Yale University in addition to a monthly stipend.

Updates on upcoming workshops will be posted on the MENA PAIR social media platforms on a regular basis. Please follow us on Twitter for updates.

There is no restriction on who can attend the workshop, any candidate is interested in injury will be able to join us in future workshops, held at AUB.