The American University of Beirut (AUB; Arabic: الجامعة الأميركية في بيروت‎) is a Protestant, private, independent university in Beirut, Lebanon. It was founded as the Syrian Protestant College by American missionaries Daniel Bliss and Henry Harris Jessup in 1866. The name was changed to the American University of Beirut on November 18, 1920. The university is popularly known as AUB. The University is governed by a private, autonomous Board of Trustees and offers programs leading to the bachelor’s, master’s, MD, and PhD degrees. The current president is Peter Dorman. Although AUB’s student body is primarily Lebanese, almost one-fifth of its students attended secondary school or university outside of Lebanon before coming to AUB. The language of instruction is English. In 1862 American missionaries in Lebanon and Syria, under the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, asked Dr. Daniel Bliss to establish a college of higher learning that would include medical training. On April 24, 1863, while Dr. Daniel Bliss was raising money for the new college in the United States and England, the State of New York granted a charter for the Syrian Protestant College.