Pursuant to the Council for Higher Education Law, 1958, the Council for Higher Education is the national institution responsible for matters related to higher education in Israel and has the authority, inter alia, to accredit an institution of higher education and to authorize it to grant academic degrees.

For information on institutions of higher education accredited by the Council for Higher Education and approved curricula, click here.

The stages for accrediting a new institution are:

The permit is the first stage in the process of accrediting a new institution. The permit is granted with the approval of the Planning and Budgeting Committee (PBC) and the Council for Higher Education (CHE), after the institution’s compliance with planning, academic, legal, budgetary, and financial requirements is established, and allows the opening and operation of an institution of higher education. Under CHE procedures, this stage also includes approval for publicizing academic study programs and registering students in these programs (as explained below). At this stage, the institution is permitted to offer courses but is not yet accredited as an institution of higher education and is not authorized to grant its graduates an academic degree. By law, the permit is valid for four years.

In the accreditation and qualification stage, the CHE recognizes the institution as an institution of higher education and the CHE may authorize it to grant an academic degree in the study programs which it was authorized to publish and in which it was authorized to enroll students. According to the Council for Higher Education Law, an accredited institution is a corporation that can sue and be sued and enjoys academic and administrative independence within the framework of its budget. The institution receives separate authorization to award an academic degree for each program.

The stages of academization of a new study programs at accredited institutions of higher education are:
The publication, registration of students, and commencement of instruction approval stage is based on a positive recommendation from the Planning and Budgeting Committee, after receipt of the opinion of a professional examination committee established by the CHE and with the approval of the CHE. At this stage, the institution is not yet authorized to award an academic degree in the program. One of the conditions for being granted a permit is demonstration of the existence of a “safety net” for the program (i.e., an undertaking by another accredited institution of higher education to accept students from the proposed program into a comparable program at the “backup” institution or, for master’s degree programs, the possibility of an administrative arrangement ) that would take effect if the institution does not receive accreditation to award the degree.

The accreditation stage
At this stage, the Council authorizes a recognized institution of higher education to grant an academic degree for the proposed program.