After three months, the senior faculty strike at the universities ended

The heads of the universities: classes will resume on Sunday.

The longest lecturers' strike in history has come to an end. According to the report in YNET, representatives of the senior academic staff and the Ministry of Finance drafted an agreement this morning (January 18.1.2008, 89) to end the strike at the academy, which began XNUMX days ago. The parties met on Thursday evening at the Ministry of Finance in Jerusalem and discussed throughout the night the various sections, based on the outline proposed by the chairman of the Histadrut, Ofer Eini.

Gali IDF reported that the agreement reached through Eini's mediation will entitle the lecturers, members of the senior faculty, to a 24% salary increase - mostly as compensation for the attrition that has occurred over the past 10 years. The increase is divided according to sections, as compensation for the erosion of their salary they will receive an increase of 16.8% which will be spread over two years, the lecturers will also receive a salary increase of 4.7% in accordance with the salary agreement signed in the public sector. The parties also agreed on a mechanism that will prevent future salary erosion - until 2015.

The agreement has not yet been signed, but already at noon, the chairman of the committee of heads of universities, Prof. Moshe Koa, announced that the announcement about the closure of the campuses at the beginning of next week is canceled, and that classes will resume on Sunday morning, according to the new academic schedules prepared by the university administrations.

"The university administrations will make every effort to enable the students to complete a full year of study," Prof. Koa emphasized, "and meet all the academic assignments required to successfully complete their studies, while maintaining a proper academic level."
At noon on Friday, the junior faculty organizations announced a national labor dispute to improve the salary conditions of all lecturers, including lecturers defined as "external lecturers". The junior faculty demands to receive the salary increase given to the senior faculty members as part of the understandings on the end of the strike.

Ben-Gurion University

In a message sent on Friday by the university's academic secretary, Avraham Bar-On, to the public of lecturers and students, it was stated that the exams scheduled for Sunday, January 20.1.08, 21.1.08 will in any case take place as planned. Following the announcement regarding the end of the strike, classes will resume only on Monday, January 25.1.08, XNUMX, in courses intended for the first semester and not opened, according to the planned schedule. The rest of the exams in the courses studied so far will be held starting on Friday, January XNUMX, XNUMX in accordance with a new exam schedule that will be published by the exam section during the week.

Haifa University

The University of Haifa announces that with the end of the strike, studies will return to their course and the exams will be held as arranged according to the planned exam schedule.

On Sunday, January 20th, the last classes of the courses that have been held so far during the first semester, exams planned for this day and the first classes of the semester that will be called A/1, which were not taught by the senior faculty on Saturday, will be held.

Details about the continuation of studies in these courses will be provided at the beginning of the week, according to the new schedule for this semester and for the year XNUMX, according to the decisions of the standing committee that will be held on Sunday.

The studies of the regular programs in business administration, continuing studies, MBL, etc. will be held according to the original programs.

We hope that with joint efforts we will overcome the loss of study days and successfully finish the year XNUMX while maintaining the required academic level in every course and every program. This will require the cooperation and joint effort of the teaching staff, the students and the administrative system of the university.

Bar-Ilan University

The administration of Bar-Ilan University is pleased to announce the end of the senior faculty members' strike and a return to full academic activity. At the beginning of the week, an updated academic schedule and additional instructions resulting from the resumption of studies for this period will be published. The exam schedule set for the courses that took place in the first semester will continue as planned, at the same time as the resumption of studies and teaching in the courses of the senior faculty.

The university administration wishes all the student body a fruitful academic year and will make every effort to make it easier for the students upon the resumption of studies.

Avigdor Vilanz in a lecture at the Technion - the government is wrong in treating higher education as an expense and not as an investment. "The government is wrong in looking at higher education as an expense. It's an investment." This is what Avigdor Vilanz (founder of the "Galileo" company, which was sold to the "Marvel" company in 2000) said yesterday. He spoke at the inauguration ceremony of the Center for Advanced Circuit Research at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the Technion.

"When I founded the Galileo company, I was in Silicon Valley in California," he said. "Friends suggested I start the company there. The main reason for the presence of hi-tech companies in Silicon Valley is the proximity of academic institutions such as Stanford and Berkeley, which have developed the knowledge that allows companies to grow. I told them that Israel has an excellent infrastructure - the Israeli engineers. The Israeli government should understand that it invests in universities and does not spend money on them. The Israeli government's investments in higher education have so far yielded excellent results. The Galileo company was established exactly 15 years ago and it was possible because there were good engineers here, mainly thanks to the Technion. A knowledge industry cannot arise without the appropriate infrastructure - engineers and research. If the State of Israel receives so much from the hi-tech industry, why doesn't it invest some of it back? Our good situation today is the result of past investments. Hence the enormous importance of establishing the Center for Advanced Circuit Research at the Technion. Such a center may have an impact in the almost immediate term, since the technological progress in research and development has a direct connection to academia."

In the unique research center, which will be used for research and study in the field of advanced circuits, the companies Intel, Marvel, Zoran, Texas Instrument and Mellanox are partnering with the Technion.