ISRAEL

Private higher education programmes to be reduced

Non-state funded programmes at academic institutions will be significantly cut back in the coming academic year amid criticism that they disproportionately benefit the affluent, reports The Jerusalem Post.

Gadi Frank, director-general of the Council for Higher Education or CHE, last week told a panel of the Knesset State Control Committee that institutions that don’t comply with the call to minimise these programmes will be fined and will not receive approval by the CHE for their academic programmes.

The committee learned that in the 2013-14 academic year there were some 3,505 students enrolled in these special programmes, compared to 2,096 in 2008-09 and 1,400 in 2004-05. They are generally offered to students interested in pursuing masters degrees, often with minimal acceptance requirements compared to the equivalent standard academic programmes. “It cannot be that only the very rich will receive an education,” said committee chair MK Karin Elharar.
Full report on The Jerusalem Post site