25/12/2017

Strengthening Internationalization

PBC will allocate NIS 5 million to create infrastructures for accepting outstanding international students at universities and colleges

  • Among other things, the infrastructures include IT systems for registration and management of international students, conversion of courses / programs into English, training of lecturers to teach in English, development of systems to support and integrate international students, creation of international websites, etc.
  • PBC is working to remove bureaucratic barriers such as visa and work permits for spouses, which is making it difficult to open the doors of Israeli institutions of higher education to foreign students.
  • The goal: to improve academic quality and strengthen the international reputation of the Israeli institutions.

 

PBC Chairperson, Yaffa Zilbershats, said, “The PBC is committed to making Israel attractive to outstanding students from countries around the world: North America, Europe and the Far East. The focus is primarily on research students and master’s students, but also on undergraduates. To make this vision reality, the institutions must develop a strategy and create infrastructures that will enable them to do so. This is the first step. The PBC will then expand its support until the objectives have been achieved.”

 

This year (2017-2018), PBC will allocate NIS 5 million to create infrastructures for accepting outstanding international students at universities and colleges. The budget allocation for infrastructure includes budgets for development of institutional internationalization strategies, building an international website in English, IT systems for registration and management of international students, conversion of courses/programs into English, training lecturers to teach in English, developing systems to support and integrate international students, creating branding and marketing systems, and more. (See details below.)

 

These infrastructures, designed to strengthen international activity in higher education, will allow the academic institutions to optimally prepare to accept outstanding international students. The PBC recently announced the results of its call, according to which the seven research universities and most of the budgeted colleges (17 colleges) will receive financial support so that they can begin to create the infrastructure this coming year. The budget allocation to each institution ranges from tens of thousands of shekels to NIS 0.5 million, depending on its size and how prepared the institution is to implement the program.

 

According to current data, the percentage of international students studying in Israel is 1.4%. This figure is significantly lower than the average of OECD countries, which is 9%. The CHE explains that this is attributable, among other things, to the fact that most Israeli institutions are not set up to accept international students, and for the most part, systems to support the foreign students are lacking, making it difficult for them.
Additionally, the CHE notes that bureaucratic barriers such as visa and work permits for spouses are making it difficult to open the doors of Israeli institutions of higher education to foreign students. CHE and PBC teams are currently working on this matter with the relevant officials in the various government ministries.

 

In this regard, note that the Council for Higher Education and the Planning and Budgeting Committee have set promotion of internationalization of higher education in general and specifically in teaching as a key objective in the multiannual plan. The hope behind strengthening internationalization is to raise the level and competitiveness of Israeli academia by accepting outstanding foreign students as well as enhancing the international reputation of the institutions in Israel. Furthermore, promoting internationalization of higher education is not only very important in academic terms, but also in political (diplomatic ties with foreign countries), social and economic terms.

 

Appendix:

The following are several examples of the types of possible infrastructures:

  • Implementing and upgrading systems for the collection and analysis of data regarding internationalization of higher education
  • A system for developing and converting courses/programs into English
  • A system for training local staff to teach in English
  • Development of a support system for international students (such as setting up a personal mentoring program and ongoing support for the students)
  • Establishing special programs to attract outstanding international postdoctoral students
  • Creating branding and international marketing plans
  • Creating/upgrading an international website