Academic colleges: Transforming higher education in Israel

In the face of a rapidly expanding demand for higher education in Israel, the government responded by converting the teachers colleges and colleges of technology into degree-granting institutions and permitting the establishment of academic colleges. The latter include both publicly and privately-funded institutions that have absorbed the greatest part of the increase in enrolment in first degree programs since the late 1980s. The academic colleges have specialized in job-related fields where the labor market has been strong, such as business, law and computer science. The paper examines policy issues that were considered in determining how to accommodate the increase in demand for higher education. A comparison is made with Canada which has also been considering whether to permit private higher education institutions. The paper concludes that the academic colleges in Israel seem to have been successful in absorbing a huge increase in enrolment, while permitting the universities to focus to a greater extent on graduate education. The question for the future is whether the costs to society of this two tier system may rise as the academic colleges mature. © 2001 International Association of Universities.