Contemporary Challenges of Higher Education in Israel

Higher education policy in Israel has many faces. On the one hand, policy reflects an approach that expresses common public interest and realization of public goals (i.e., quantity – increasing access to higher education for the general public), and on the other hand, higher education policy adheres to an approach that promotes academic-research interests and its goals (i.e., quality – excellence in scientific outputs), with emphasis on the lofty goal of producing new knowledge for humanity. The primary challenge of such a policy that concurrently embraces two approaches (which are potentially either complementary or mutually harmful, depending on your point of view), is a matter of proportions: which approach drives decision making in higher education, and which is merely a by-product of this policy. In the second decade of the twenty-first century, as the number of students soars, we are witnesses to higher education’s transformation into a product for the masses, a change that requires countries worldwide to find new models of academic leadership if they wish to maintain a balance between society’s needs and the needs of science and increased academic productivity. This chapter discusses the challenges of higher education in Israel, Israel’s attempt to respond to these challenges, and the strengths and weaknesses of the solution in light of the winds of change in Israel and global trends.