Scepticism over degrees held by many top police officers

More than half of Israel’s most senior police officers, including Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai, hold academic degrees from foreign universities that had operated branches in Israel in the past, but have since had their accreditation removed by the education ministry, writes Josh Breiner for Haaretz.

These include the University of West London, the University of Derby and the University of Latvia. Long before Zoom became an integral part of our lives, these institutions employed what was described as ‘distance learning’, but in many cases, sources said, the studies were a farce. “It was nonsense,” says a former senior police officer. “People would ask relatives to write their papers for them in English. Officers and non-coms [non-commissioned officers] realised that this was a degree you could do without studying and get a higher pay grade. There are those who really studied, but it’s almost impossible to really earn a degree while doing the demanding work of the police.”

Some of the police officers, however, insist that the studies were “very serious”, and included courses with lessons in various classrooms throughout the country, along with papers and tests. While the degrees received from these academic branches were recognised at the time by the education ministry, senior figures in the police and the academic world are sceptical about the level of study.
Full report on the Haaretz site