Faculty protest expansion of gender-segregated programmes

Senior faculty heads at most Israeli universities sent a letter to the education minister protesting the expansion of gender-segregated academic programmes for ultra-Orthodox students, after the Council for Higher Education approved opening such classes at universities to encourage enrolment of Haredi students, writes Yarden Skop for Haaretz.

The letter to Naftali Bennett was an unusual step for faculty members because such groups rarely involve themselves in issues not directly related to their employment conditions and responsibilities. The letter was sent by faculty groups at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Be’er Sheva, the University of Haifa and the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa.

The faculty groups object mainly to the discrimination against female faculty members, who will not be allowed to teach male students in the programmes, while male lecturers will be allowed to teach female students. “The attempt to prevent female faculty members from teaching men will harm the freedom of occupation of all academic faculty,” the letter stated.
Full report on the Haaretz site