The cut in university budgets in the previous decade is noticeable: they lost students to the colleges.

First part of the data review published by the Council for Higher Education in preparation for the opening of the academic year

The Council for Higher Education published yesterday (Thursday) Data for the opening of the academic school year 2013/2014 - XNUMX/XNUMX.
The academic school year opens at the beginning of next week in 66 higher education institutions in the seven research universities, the Open University, 37 academic colleges (of which 21 are budgeted by the Ministry of Education and Culture) and 21 colleges for the training of teaching staff.

About 308,000 students are expected to study this year in all the aforementioned institutions - of which 236,770 for a bachelor's degree, 59,700 for a master's degree and 10,650 for a third degree. The remaining 1,200 are studying certificate studies. (At this point, Ariel University's data are counted with those of the colleges so that it can be compared to last year's data on the same basis, as explained by the MLA).
Among the bachelor's degree students, 72,730 study at universities, a decrease of 1.7%. 44 thousand students will study at the Open University, an increase of 2.9%. There was also a similar increase in the number of students studying for a bachelor's degree in colleges, which will reach 97,140 - of which 57,610 are in colleges funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture.

In contrast to the tremendous expansion that characterized the 3.9s, the 8s were marked by a significant slowdown in the rate of growth in the number of students, about XNUMX% on average per year compared to over XNUMX% in the XNUMXs, similar to the increase in the number of undergraduate students. The slowdown that characterized the XNUMXs was due to the severe budget cuts that were imposed on the higher education institutions, among other things through the imposition of limits on the increase in the number of students.

At the beginning of the current decade, the multi-year plan for the higher education system was signed between the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Finance. The program embodies reforms in various fields and has been given a high position in the national priorities. The program has several main goals including: recruiting young and outstanding faculty, promoting the quality of teaching, increasing resources for competitive research and establishing centers of excellence. It was also decided that the OT will work to increase the accessibility of the higher education system to the ultra-orthodox population and minorities by formulating detailed plans to deal with the unique barriers for each of the populations in entering the system.

The high demand for bachelor's degree studies and its referral to the academic colleges led to far-reaching changes in the structure of the system and the laying of the infrastructure for the current higher education system. During the last two decades, the number of students studying for a bachelor's degree increased more than 3 times and their number reached 190 thousand in XNUMX. This tremendous growth resulted in a gradual and consistent increase in the proportion of students who studied for a bachelor's degree in the academic colleges, and in XNUMX the proportion of the students who studied in the academic colleges crossed for the first time (including the tracks
the academics under university responsibility (the 50%). At the same time, the share of those studying on the main campuses of the universities continues to decrease, until in 34.7 it reached XNUMX%.

In recent years we have witnessed the exhaustion of the age group applying for bachelor's degree studies. This trend stems from a number of factors: the stabilization of matriculation eligibility rates, the stabilization of the rate of those eligible who meet the threshold requirements of the universities, as well as the slowing of the growth rate of the relevant age group for entering the higher education system. In the decade 1990-2000, the average age group of 20-24 year olds grew by an average rate of about 3.5%, but during the 0.9s the rate of growth slowed significantly to about XNUMX%.

All of these together affect the general slowdown in the rate of growth of the system and as seen in the past year the number of students increased by only 1.7% and these trends are expected to continue in the coming years.

The general trends described above in student numbers are expected to continue in 1. The number of students studying for a bachelor's degree in universities and colleges (without the OP) is expected to increase by only 72,730% compared to last year. "According to our estimates, the number of those studying for a bachelor's degree in universities will stabilize around 1.7 students, a decrease of 2.8% relative to last year. We anticipate that the entire increase in the total number of students for a bachelor's degree will be concentrated in the academic colleges and the rate of increase in them will be 2,600%, an increase of about XNUMX students."

The number of those studying for a master's degree in the higher education system as a whole is expected to stand at 59,700 students in 3.1, an increase of 39% relative to 12,350. We anticipate that 1,000 graduate students will study at the universities this year, similar to last year. About 8.7 master's degree students will study in the academic colleges this year, an increase of XNUMX students, which is an increase of about XNUMX% relative to XNUMX, with most of the increase expected in the off-budget colleges.

The number of PhD students in universities has also seen a slowdown in recent years. In the early 3,900s, about 10,300 PhD students studied at the universities, and their number increased at a very rapid pace to 10,655 in 10,615. In the last five years, the rate of growth in the number of these has slowed down a lot and in XNUMX, XNUMX students studied for a third degree compared to XNUMX in XNUMX.

We estimate that in 10,650 the number of doctoral students will remain unchanged and will be around XNUMX students, similar to XNUMX. The distribution of those studying for a PhD gradually changes over the years among the seven research universities. In the XNUMXs and XNUMXs, most of those studying for a PhD studied at four institutions: the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Technion, Tel Aviv University and the Weizmann Institute of Science. During the XNUMXs and XNUMXs, the share of those studying at the above-mentioned institutions gradually decreased at the same time as the proportion of those studying at Bar-Ilan University, Haifa University and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev increased.

In the second part we will deal with the data on the distribution of women, Arabs and other sectors, trends among the faculty as well as the professional preferences of the students.