Effective Regulation of the Israeli Higher Education System in the Global and Neoliberal Era

Abstract

For over six decades Israel’s system of higher education has been managed by the Ministry of Education and the Council for Higher Education (CHE). During this period, significant transitions have occurred in the academic system throughout the world and in Israel, leaving their mark on research and teaching and on the related regulatory agencies. The purpose of the study is to examine the need for regulation of higher education in a capitalist world, with Israel serving as a case study. 
 
 The study examines the CHE’s management of changes that occurred in the academic world and the overall considerations utilized by the pilots of this regulatory agency, which led to shaping policy from a perspective of time and with an eye to the challenges of the future, in comparison to supervisory agencies around the world. The research method is based on research literature addressing the system of higher education in Israel and elsewhere as well as on interviews with senior academics occupying key positions in the CHE in the past and present. The research findings indicate that the CHE has a bureaucratic image, a short-sighted policy, and that it reacts to events more than leading them, as opposed to its declared goal of promoting high standard, innovative, and accessible research and teaching processes to benefit the economy and society. 
 
 The conclusion generated by the research findings is that implementation of a hybrid model suitable for the twenty first century, which combines liberalization and regulation, should be explored. This model will let institutions of higher education develop independently while reducing government supervision, and will allow the regulatory body to regulate their activity via incentives and restrictions, while identifying market failures that it will define. Such a regulatory body will include an array of academic experts from the field of higher education with proven experience in the fields of academic research and teaching, in order to separate the managing of Israel’s system of higher education from politics and bureaucracy.

Utilization Trends of the Israeli Higher Education System by Generation Z from 2015-2020

“…Israel's system of higher education went through a very considerable process of development from establishment of the state (in 1948) to the present. During this period, the number of institutions that award academic degrees has grown, and with them the number of undergraduate and graduate students (Davidovitch & Cohen, 2021). Until the early 1990s Israel had only a limited number of universities, however in 1993 a reform was implemented in the domestic system of higher education, eventually leading to an extensive change in opportunities for acquiring an academic education in Israel, a process that took about a decade.…”

“…A recent study that examined the functioning of Israel's Council for Higher Education (Davidovitch & Cohen, 2021) attests that this regulatory body recognizes the significance of higher education for the integration of graduates in the labor market and therefore in recent years (Note 5) it approved a support program for encouraging "learning that combines practical experiencing" as part of undergraduate studies in Israel's institutions of higher education. In this program, the funded institutions will receive incentives to develop an institutional system in charge of all learning that combines practical experiencing and academic contents, including courses encompassing practical experiences that will be offered to undergraduate students, particularly in the social sciences and the humanities.…”