Minister of Education Gideon Sa'ar: The test for all of us will be in the 2011 budget. The choice must be in education and higher education

No fewer than four ministers participated yesterday (Tuesday) in the founding conference of the lobby for higher education in the current Knesset led by MK Ze'ev Elkin and MK Avraham Michaeli. As usual, the Minister of Finance demanded efficiency, while the chairman of VT said that the higher education system would do a home inspection, but without more funds it would not be able to face the world

The difficult situation of higher education managed to unite all the parties involved in the system for a joint celebratory meeting that took place yesterday (Tuesday) in one of the halls of the Knesset. The heads of the TA, the presidents of all the universities, the heads of the public college boards, the faculty representatives at the universities and colleges, as well as MK Alex Miller, who serves as the head of the student lobby. All the Israeli Nobel laureates were also invited, but only two represented them: Prof. Avraham Hershko and Prof. Ada Yonat.

MK Elkin opened the meeting, saying that the presence around the table says a lot about the state of higher education. There are four ministers here. Members of Knesset, heads of committees, heads of universities and heads of colleges. "The most important thing is that there is an overall agreement that the higher education system must be restored. There is a rare situation where the Minister of Finance came from the academy, and today there is a desire to make changes at Bot, and the current academic year opened for the first time in a long time without any problems on the part of the various faculty organizations or the students." said MK Elkin, who also mentioned that one of those present - the president of the Hebrew University, Prof. Menachem Ben-Shashon, was in his previous position as a member of the Knesset also the chairman of the lobby in the previous term, but it was difficult for him to reach achievements due to the differences of opinion between the various partners of the higher education system.

MK Michaeli: "It is difficult to close gaps of a long time in a short time. The lobby is a platform for bringing issues to the attention of the members of the Knesset. The cooperation of the government and the Knesset with you (referring to academics) is required, we suggest you offer a regular activity so that we can come and get updates from you. I hope that in the end we will be proud of the productive produce."

Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz: I personally avoided joining lobbies or leading lobbies in the Knesset, but I came to this lobby with great desire and joy."

"We always cry over the fate of academia and higher education," said the Minister of Finance. "But there is something to be blessed about. There is a high education and research in Israel. Overall, in relation to the world, we have the highest number of Nobel Prizes in the world in relation to the size of the population. The allowance in Israel for research and development in Israel is the largest in relation to GDP. 4.6% of GDP but there are problems and they are not easy. The main problem that the entire academy in the western world is facing is the tough competition produced by the universities mainly in the USA. The USA creates competition towards the entire world. It is attractive and attractive, the structure is different, the salary is different, the budgets are different. America has become a magnet and we suffer from it.

It is not only budgetary because it is impossible to compete with salaries or conditions. The structure of higher education in the US is completely different, there is a problem with the way in which higher education in the country is conducted and the way in which the institutions are conducted, and if the OT and the universities do not help themselves, it will be difficult to help them. It's not easy because we won't reach an academic structure like in the US, nor does everything suit us, but we have to compete. There should be thinking in all the issues of the conduct of the universities, salary, the relationship between young researchers and adults. The progress should be both budgetary but also structural - management criteria, excellence, encouraging young people.

The Minister of Education and Chairman of the Legislative Assembly, Gideon Sa'ar: "You really succeeded in bringing about an event that is a very impressive event and this status is binding. I hope it also indicates the direction of the current Knesset in relation to the higher education system and the connection between the cultivation of higher education and the future of Israel. It is important to create a broad economic and political atmosphere around higher education."

Minister Sa'ar added: "I had conversations with Steinitz and we see eye to eye on a large part of the issues. I think there is listening in the Ministry of Finance from both the minister and the antitrust commissioner Dr. Udi Nissan. This is an opportunity and we will stand the test on this issue. This is an opportunity because the real priorities of the State of Israel as I see them are the same as the way the Minister of Finance sees it."

"The big challenge is a five-year plan that will deal with bringing back minds, changing the budgeting model, dealing with the deep problems: the pension and the tuition fees with the faculty and the students respectively to exhaust the desire to get things done while talking. And we must carry out a budgetary reinforcement after years of budget cuts because in the end it is necessary to create standards that will allow young faculty to be appointed to positions in institutions of higher education.

In conclusion, Minister Sa'ar said: "The test for all of us will be in the 2011 budget. Israel's choice in the next budget must be in education and higher education. The test of all of us, beyond all the efforts we will make during this period, will be in deciding on an order of priorities that will give expression to Israel's choice in this way."

Minister of Science Hershkowitz: "The chief scientist at TMT has a budget 10 times larger than the Ministry of Science"

Prof. Daniel Hershkowitz - Minister of Science and Technology: "There is no doubt that higher education and investment in scientific research is something that creates more GDP in every country, all the more so in the State of Israel where the only tested resource we have is the human resource and when we talk about the development of the human resource it is clear that we need to cultivate the All education systems at all ages, in all fields, and of course the highlight for the subject is higher education and science. When we talk about priorities, there is, unfortunately, in the academy we have felt it, there is a tendency to allocate more resources to applied research. The chief scientist of the TMT has a budget 10 times larger than the budget of the Ministry of Science, which supports infrastructural science. There is great importance in changing the order of priorities, including allocation to basic research, including great support for higher education, where to a large extent our future is, and of course together with all the forces in academia."

Minority Affairs Minister Prof. Avishai Braverman: "Ben Gurion had only one advisor - Prof. Ernest David Bergman. He made a decision that higher education is a top priority, he allocated budgets and we enjoy it to this day.
"The fact that several great Nobel laureates such as Avraham Hershko and Ada Yonat were released is the result of investment in the past and it has nothing to do with the investment they had. There is also a similar number of Jews in the USA - and let's count the number of their Nobel Prizes. These indications have no statistical significance."

"What is important is the basic point. The difference between desirable and found is money. What was not clarified in the previous terms - that in the end you can add sticks if there is a carrot. University presidents do not have the ability to lead changes, for example in the direction of reward for excellence, if the faculty does not support them. Some people on the other side do not understand the complexities of running a university. 50% of popsors are 55 and over, compared to levels of 25-30% in the US, Canada and Australia. I support bringing 300 scientists from Harvard, Stanford and Princeton, even at the expense of the assurance that the return of such scientists will be expressed in billions."

Following what Minister Sa'ar said, Minister Braverman also said: "Our test will be together in the next budget. There must be an additional budget if Trachtenberg (chairman of the MLA) does not have the ability to lead a budget, he will not be able to do anything. In 1992, at the age of 42, I was elected president of Ben Gurion University. I sat with Rabin and we worried about how to promote the university. Today, a university president can only meet with only a representative in the treasury."

Braverman criticized economic journalists who wrote against what they call waste in higher education: "Journalists do not know the difference between expensive and wasteful. People read it abroad and ask if it is worth continuing to donate."
As for his current position, Braverman said: "The Israeli system has not been able to absorb the Arab citizens of Israel, who are 20% of the population. Here, too, we need a policy."

The Deputy Minister for Youth, Students and Women's Affairs, Gila Gamliel, mainly referred to the tuition fee, which she claims is high and hinders the residents of the periphery, and on her proposal to allow one year of free education in institutions in the periphery or for residents of the periphery throughout the country.

The main presentation at the meeting was presented by Prof. Manuel Trachtenberg, the chairman of the Council for Higher Education, who opened with a riddle: "What is common between the development of the Arrow system, the drug Copaxone, and the development of ICQ, which is now entering the granddaddy of social networking platforms and marked the beginning of the development of exits. Development of the city of Be'er Sheva, exposing the seat of the Sanhedrin in Tiberias? All of these are direct or indirect products of the higher education system."

Israel has achieved impressive achievements in scientific products, but there are warning lights. We dropped from first place to fourth place in the number of scientific publications per capita, and we also dropped absolutely, not only relative to other countries. We have created fine human capital that is behind the success of high-tech, the defense R&D that is responsible for Israel's economic resilience, and we have also paved the way for economic-social mobility. The number of colleges grew fivefold over twenty years, the number of students grew threefold, which is an unprecedented growth among OECD countries. But in the last decade we see a decline that is reflected in brain drain. Our excellent young people are currently found mainly in the USA, in the best research centers in the world and not among us, there is a steep increase in the average age of the senior faculty, an increase in the number of students per lecturer, and a decrease in the prestige of higher education in the Israeli public. This has serious consequences for society, economy and security."

The senior academic staff in the universities has fallen drastically from about 4,700 to 4,300. There is no country in the OECD where the number of senior staff in universities has decreased absolutely. And of course the student-faculty ratio increased from 16 to 24 and the quality of teaching is severely affected.
A comprehensive change is needed that will lead to the flourishing of education in Israel of the 22nd century. These are the goals:
Encouraging scientific-research excellence. If in the last 15 years we have focused on quantitative growth, the era of a wall and a tower of rapid quantitative growth is behind us and now the challenge is quality - the quality of research, the quality of teaching, the quality of the personnel we train in our institutions. We must put emphasis on the quality of the human capital acquired in our institutions and on increasing accessibility to unique sectors - the ultra-Orthodox and the minorities. It is not a matter of their need for higher education, it is a national need.

How do you do it? First, we need to put the house in order within the higher education system. You need to look the truth in the eye, approach the craft including ensuring full transparency, relying on dialogue and a cooperative approach, increasing supervision and enforcement, reducing the bureaucratic burden in approving teaching plans and emphasizing long-term planning. We have already made progress on some of these, but there is still much work to be done.

A long-term comprehensive plan is also required that will include a new budgeting model to incentivize research excellence and quality teaching. We must develop a five-year plan in light of the goals while allocating additional resources to the system, very significant resources and if not, it's a waste of time (in the original meaning of the sentence). In this framework, one should strive to regulate the tuition fees in cooperation with the students. And of course, the huge obstacle of the budgetary pension should be removed from the agenda - with the cooperation of the faculty."

"In addition, today we are talking about establishing centers of excellence for brain recovery. We are trying to pool resources from both donors, the government, and the institutions in order to simultaneously bring minds back home and advance the goal of research excellence."
"The characteristics of the activities of universities and colleges need to be defined. I do not accept any of the dogmas that were acceptable as a cloud over the system. We need to enhance the relative advantage and not make one size fits all because that would destroy the system. We need to know how to open the academic institutions to the communities around them, so that the general public can also benefit from the fruits of science and higher education. And finally - if we unite around these goals, know how to involve the general public, the Knesset and the government, there is a chance that we will be able to put higher education on the high road."

Prof. Ben Ze'ev to Dr. Steinitz: "You have nowhere to go back to, because of you there are not enough standards"

Prof. Aharon Ben Ze'ev, chairman of the RA - the committee of heads of universities: "I hear very pleasant music here that we have not heard before. I want to tell the Minister of Finance that if he wants to return to Haifa University, there are no vacant positions. We need two main things. The first thing is Shalom Beit within the system, Shalom Beit does not mean that there is no competition or there is no difference between things, but cooperation with all the components of the system - universities, colleges, faculty members, the organization of the faculty committee and students. We must also increase our appearance externally in the media and in connection with the Knesset and government ministries."

"The quality aspect is very important to us, we need to learn that this is a quality system that competes not with this or that university but with the best universities in the world. For this we need infrastructure. Education and higher education should be seen as a national infrastructure for improving human capital, which contributes and has contributed a lot to the country in security, in society, in bridging gaps. We have hopes with the new system at Bot, headed by Prof. Trachtenberg.

Prof. Shosh Arad, head of Rupin College and chairman of the Prime Minister (Committee of Heads of Public Colleges): "The colleges were established by the government in order to exceed the demand for higher education, to develop the periphery. The colleges are still relatively young institutions and are in the process of developing and building an academic and other infrastructure. Spread over the whole country from Tel Hai to Sderot. Despite this, the budget of the public colleges is about 13% of the national budget. There is discrimination, which affects the employment of the colleges' faculty. I hope that the new diskette will provide an answer to a large public of good teachers who are discriminated against in colleges. They don't have a sabbatical, they have a large teaching load. However, the quality of the graduates and the quality of the colleges is increasing."

Zebulon Orlev Yore of the Knesset's Education, Culture and Sports Committee: "Even if we fulfill all the things that Prof. Trachtenberg said, I am satisfied if one more shekel is added to the budget and I do not know how it will be possible to maintain independence because we all know that the budget expresses a policy that is a terrible struggle for priorities. What will the money be spent on? When they come to talk about the budget, don't dream of a bad conversation. You are not aware of your public power. You don't understand your public status enough. When did the winner of the Israel Prize last sit down to talk with a minister?, when did the president of a university sit down with the chairman of the finance committee. Part of the point of the struggle is a struggle for consciousness. I don't see a government that, if you go as one, can not lower its gaze in front of your gaze. Others are struggling and you are not struggling.”

"You were cut 2.6 billion shekels during the term that Bibi was finance minister. Did anyone care? We who live inside know the heavy prices we paid, but it didn't happen that prime ministers didn't want to help. Olmert wanted to help, Bibi wants to help, he understands the role of the academy, but if you continue to shut down and you are withdrawn and you don't get out of their business and you don't understand that part of your job is to determine the order of national priorities, I am not optimistic. If you enlist in a planned journey."

Prof. Menachem Yaari, President of the National Academy of Sciences: "In the past, the atmosphere at these meetings was full of sourness. The atmosphere I mentioned is not only a sign of the government's attitude towards higher education and government, but also a sign of a general anti-intellectual attitude that has increased in recent years. I don't agree with what Prof. Orlev said that there is appreciation in the audience and the Israeli public for intellectual activity, but one of the roles of leadership is to highlight this activity and its importance to Israeli society all the more, and I would add that to the lobby's goals."

Prof. Yaari wanted to talk about efficiency as an economist, which is his area of ​​expertise: both I and Prof. Trachtenberg agree that it is a mathematical theorem that if you take resources and distribute them competitively according to excellence, this is the most efficient distribution. Don't make claims that we are seeking to distribute resources in a competitive manner according to excellence, that we are sinning inefficiency."

Prof. Ada Yonat preferred to quote the King of Sweden with whom she had dinner for three and a half hours: "We talked about higher education, he said that both Sweden and Israel are 2 small countries with the same number of inhabitants. Both excel in high-tech and medicine but suffer from a lack of funding for basic research and studies. He told me you talk to your government and I will talk to my government to increase the budget for basic research. I told this to Netanyahu when he called to congratulate me. He knows it, but he didn't have time to tell you."
Prof. Avraham Hershko, Nobel laureate: "I am anxious for the future of higher education, Nobel prizes are for what was invested 40 years ago. There will be no Nobel Prizes and no opportunities in science and technology. We want to see action. "

MK Yuli Tamir, former Minister of Education: "We need to give Trachtenberg the backing to do important and principled things. The Knesset also has destructive power in matters of higher intelligence. We as members of the Knesset have to take it upon ourselves to exercise restraint. In recent years, the Knesset has enacted laws that have harmed higher education. Decisions must be made, some of which will not be popular. The role of the chairmen of the lobby is both to promote the principled issues and to restrain the system of the Knesset which is not always responsible. The lack of hostility in the room between the parties bodes well and that we will not be the party that introduces instability into the system. As an example, MK Tamir presented the proposed law to abolish the testpsychometric which is up for a vote today.

MK Marina Solodkin spoke mainly about the KMA project, which is in danger of being closed and which for ten years has allowed up-and-coming scientists to contribute to the Israeli academy. You have competitors, in meetings. And they have two parties. They have lobbyists. Your decision to work closely with Knesset members is very correct. The atmosphere in Israel is anti-intellectual.

Prof. Tamar Eliav, Chairman of the Board of Education College Heads: I heard that the order of priorities is education and higher education. The academic colleges of education are exactly at this seam. There are 24 academic colleges for education, some of them are very old and have been academic since the seventies. The training institutions should be strong institutions and part of the higher education family. Today they are outside the fence. They are within the grant but are budgeted by the Ministry of Education. The compartmentalization harms the training processes, the ability to attract good faculty. The discrimination of this historical mistake needs to be corrected, the colleges that can and want it to be transferred to Lotte."

Yigal Cohen Orgad, president of the Ariel University Center: "We all agreed on the general things. The lobby's test will be under pressure from the outside but also as a workshop for internal clarification. Trachtenberg rightly emphasized the huge gap regarding the Arab and ultra-Orthodox sectors in their participation in higher education. It is an illusion as if in the non-Orthodox Jewish sector we have reached an asymptote regarding higher education, but this is not true, there are still many people who do not receive higher education. Take for example Yehud versus Savion or the Rehavia neighborhood in Jerusalem versus the Katmanim, development cities versus established cities, the percentage of participants in higher education is 0.6 to 1. We have reached the limit in Tachiya and Ramat Aviv. There is a potential that if we don't exhaust it we will have to compete with the Chinese practice. The only way is to give the tools to reduce the number of students in higher education in the ultra-orthodox and Arab sectors as well as the periphery."

Rabbi Dr. Adina Bar-Shalom - head of the ultra-Orthodox college: "Higher education for the ultra-Orthodox is something that is not taken for granted. 200 years ago, higher education in Europe led to the assimilation and destruction of a large part of the students, and that is why they are afraid. Ten years ago we founded the college. Bar Ilan University, Hadassah Academic College, Ben Gurion University and the Open Universities have given me the platform to work without it I would not have been able to start. We have 300 graduates to date, we hope to continue every year. There are only a thousand students, out of 7,000 Haredi girls who study in seminaries and tens of thousands of Haredi boys who study in yeshiva. Every big action starts with a small step. I believe that we will be able to employ ultra-Orthodox scholars like the Rambam and the Ramban in our generation as well.

MK Alex Miller, chairman of the branch for the students. That I am not ready to come and talk about reducing tuition fees for the sake of saving higher education. If they come with a proposal that proves that the higher education system is going to improve following one or another concession and not first of all let's raise the tuition fees and then think about what to do with the money, we will also be happy to contribute our part.

Prof. Yakir Shoshani - the head of the faculty at the colleges: "I came to this distinguished forum, I was surprised by two things, why until now Akma has such a strong and capable lobby until now. Higher education has existed in Israel for many years. The second difference is that we have reached the vision of the last days, everything is fine, everything is beautiful. I represent the faculty committee in the public colleges in Israel. The higher education in the colleges that today constitute the vast majority of the students, the colleges have very serious problems related to the concept of what a college is and everything related to the budgeting of the colleges. There are many people in colleges who do good and worthy research and are not rewarded. The criterion should be a criterion based on personal excellence. A person who comes with receipts, give him the opportunity to research and develop, and to be a good lecturer, we must have some kind of research infrastructure. We are almost at the brink of a crisis. I hope the problems will be solved. If the discrimination against the colleges is not abolished, this system will explode and make noise."