The establishment of universities in the Galilee and Ariel will deepen the crisis in the research universities
Hagit Messer-Yron
The government's decision at the beginning of the month regarding universities in the Galilee and Ariel opened with a statement on the national importance of establishing new universities as a lever for regional development. However, there is a real danger that this decision will seriously damage another issue of national importance - the international status of research universities in Israel.
In the current situation in the higher education system in Israel, defining an institution as a university means recognizing the institution of higher education as a research institution. This recognition involves two things: accessibility to the allowances allocated by the Ministry of Defense to universities only, against research outputs, and the possibility of awarding doctoral degrees. The decision to establish more universities means adding competitors to the research resources: budgets and research students.
In 2004, the ranking of universities in the world was published, which was made mainly according to their research achievements. We can be blessed by the fact that all the universities in Israel appeared in the list of 500 universities defined as World Class Universities (the Hebrew University was ranked the highest among the universities in Israel - 92nd place). While many governments in the world aim to improve the position of their universities in the ranking, the Israeli government's decision may lead to the opposite result.
The immediate consequence of including more institutions in the list of budgeted universities will be the deepening of the budgetary crisis that the existing universities have fallen into. The crisis has already caused a reduction in the number of senior, reputable and experienced faculty members; must slow down significantly in the absorption of young faculty; and harmed, if not caused the complete collapse of, branches of research of national and international importance. One of the results of the crisis is that the universities are gradually turning from research, teaching and cultural institutions in their name to systems dominated by business concepts. Because of the difficulty in raising budgets, scientists in Israel are turning from experimental research fields to theoretical fields.
Moreover, the atmosphere among the members of the academic staff is difficult: they feel a lack of public appreciation and pressure from the university administrations to bring in money, to teach more, to show quick and shiny achievements. This has a devastating effect on the future generations of science in Israel: young and serious scientists are looking for their future elsewhere. The atmosphere of the disabled and alienated in the academy has, and will continue to have, additional negative consequences, expressed in the feeling of lack of attachment to society and identification with its needs.
The budget is not the only resource that research universities compete for. Another resource is the PhD students. Unlike the first degree and even the second degree, the third degree is not intended for a person's education; This is a professional degree, which authorizes a person to act as an "independent researcher" by delving into some narrow topic. Therefore, only those who wish to engage in research, or those whose work requires it, are required for the title of "Doctor". The OT must adjust the scope of the institutions that grant doctorate degrees to the public funding needed to meet the state's needs for researchers. Excessive expansion of this scope will lead to a waste of public resources on the one hand, and to the danger of the cheapness of the title "Doctor" on the other.
The research students are the scientists of the future and are the international mirror of Israel. Today, almost anyone with a doctor's degree from Israel can be accepted as a scientist with post-doctoral status in all the leading universities and laboratories in the world. It is important to maintain this level of excellence without compromise, and it should not be jeopardized by excessive accessibility to this degree, which may result from the hasty establishment of additional universities.
Maintaining the status of the universities in Israel is not an interest of the universities themselves, but a first-rate national interest. The public interest obliges the Israeli government to foster research universities in Israel and to act at the forefront of the world university ranking. The important national interest of developing areas of national priority should not prevail over the need for science and research at an international level, the existence of which constitutes a national asset - both economic, security and cultural.
The author is a professor of electrical engineering at Tel Aviv University, former chief scientist of the Ministry of Science
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