Report card shows drop in university education quality

The Media Line 20 October 2017

More Israelis are getting college degrees – nearly half of men and some 60% of women – but the quality of their education is decreasing, which will have significant implications in the future. That is the conclusion reached by a new study, Report Card on Israel’s Higher Education System, conducted by the Shoresh Institution for Socioeconomic Research, writes Linda Gradstein for The Media Line.

“This reflects a multi-decade shift in national priorities away from excellence and in the direction of quantity as opposed to quality,” the report’s author, Dan Ben David, told The Media Line. “We have one of the most educated societies in the world, but one of the lowest rates of productivity.”

Ben David explained that in standardised tests called PISA, Israel came 24th out of 25 countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, of which it is a member. Israel has six large well-established research universities, but acceptance rates are low, especially in the sciences. A recent report found that two-thirds of computer science jobs in the country remain unfilled due to a lack of qualified candidates.
Full report on The Media Line site

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