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The higher education system in Israel is made up of universities; non-university institutions of higher education that have been accredited to award degrees; other academic colleges, liberal arts as well as technological, that award bachelor’s degrees in a variety of programs; academic teacher training colleges that award B.Ed. degrees; regional colleges that offer academic courses for which universities are academically responsible; extensions or branches of foreign institutions of higher education that have obtained a license from the Council for Higher Education in Israel.
Higher education in Israel is under the direct jurisdiction of the Council for Higher Education, which is responsible for accrediting and authorizing institutions of higher education to award degrees. It is this jurisdiction which distinguishes the higher education system from the post-secondary education system which does not lead to an academic degree.
The following universities engage in both teaching and research: the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, Tel Aviv University, Bar-Ilan University, the University of Haifa, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and the Weizmann Institute of Science (a research institute that offers graduate programs). These institutions offer undergraduate and graduate programs in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and business administration. Some offer programs in law, medicine, dental medicine, paramedical studies, pharmacy, agriculture, applied sciences, engineering and architecture. The Open University in Israel offers undergraduate courses (and in some cases graduate courses) in the humanities, social sciences, business administration, and natural sciences and is based on distance-teaching.
In addition to the universities, a large variety of institutions are accredited as institutions of higher education and offer academic programs in a broad spectrum of fields, such as the fine arts, business, law, music, technology, and teacher training. University-level education is also offered by regional colleges in evening classes. Universities are academically responsible for these courses.
The language of instruction in all of the institutions of higher education is Hebrew (with the exception of the Feinberg Graduate School of the Weizmann Institute of Science, where the official language of study is English), although several offer a few courses or programs in other languages.
The institutions of higher education are autonomous in the conduct of their academic and administrative affairs within the framework of their budgets. Most of the accredited institutions of higher education in Israel are supported by public funds, which account for well over two-thirds of their total recurrent budgets. Nonetheless, they are not state universities or colleges (tuition and student fees cover about 20% and the remainder is derived from contributions and other sources). A number of accredited institutions receive no government support.
These institutions are financed primarily by the fees they charge, which are significantly higher than in the publicly funded institutions.
The licensing and accrediting authority for higher education is the Council for Higher Education, a statutory body whose chairman is, ex-officio, the Minister of Education. In addition to the chairman, the Council is composed of 19-24 members personally appointed by the President of the State of Israel on the recommendation of the Government. At least two thirds of the members must be academics of standing. The Council has the sole power to accredit institutions of higher education and to authorize them to award academic degrees. With regard to extensions or branches of foreign institutions, it has the sole authority to grant them a license to operate in Israel under the academic accreditation of the relevant body in their home country.
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