Ariel University Center is expected to be upgraded by Council for Higher Education to university status in coming weeks.
By Asaf Shtull-Trauring | Jun.27, 2012
The Ariel University Center in the West Bank is expected
to be upgraded by the Council for Higher Education to university status
in the coming weeks and public criticism of the potential upgrade is
growing.
On Wednesday morning, the presidents of Israel's seven universities
sent a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling on him to
prevent the establishment of another research university in Israel.
The letter was sent following a recent emergency meeting held by the heads of Israel's universities.
In the letter, the presidents said that the establishment of another
university would deal a "fatal blow to the higher education system in
general, and the universities in particular."
"For many years, the universities have suffered from under-budgeting,
which harmed the research capabilities of the State of Israel, led to
braid drain abroad, and delayed the development and advancement of
research and education infrastructure," the letter read. "These years
are known as 'the lost decade', and with its consequences the
universities have dealt with great difficulty until today. Recently,
under the leadership of your government, a spirit of welcome change
came, in terms of investment in higher education in Israel… the
initiative to establish another university, the eighth, is completely
contrary to this spirit, since there is no real need for another
university in Israel."
"This step would greatly harm to the capabilities of Israel's existing
universities to recover from 'the lost decade' and actually will set
them years back."
Technion President Professor Peretz Lavie told Haaretz on Wednesday
that there is no political motive, regarding Ariel's location in the
West Bank, for the presidents' opposition to the upgrade.
"There are no political reasons here," he said. "I was among those who
opposed boycotting the University Center. The problem is the harnessing
of higher education for political purposes while skipping over all
professional steps. There is a political group that sees the State of
Israel with different borders and adding a university to these regions
changes the political situation."
