Rector's Update - February 2019 | Office of the Rector

3 February, 2019

Dear Colleagues,

This update deals with news about prizes to faculty members, new nominations and data on our achievements according to the PBC (VATAT) funding model.

1. The Rector's Prize for excellent achievements in research and teaching is awarded to: Amalya Oliver-Lumerman (Sociology, Social Sciences); Saul Burdman (Plant Pathology and Microbiology, Agriculture); Michael Shapira (Computer Sciences); Brouria Bitton-Ashkelony (Comparative Religion, Humanities); Eli Pikarsky (Immunology and Cancer Research, Medicine).

The Milken Prize for excellent teaching is awarded to: Yitzhak Tuchman (Physics, Science); Liran Carmel (Life Sciences, Science); Moshe Shayo (Economics, Social Sciences); Haya Lorberboum-Galski (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Medicine).

The ceremony will be held on Monday, March 4, 2019, at 6 pm, in the Truman conference hall.

Congratulations to Eliezer Rabinovici (Physics) for receiving, along with four colleagues, the American Association for the Advancement of Science 2019 Award for Science Diplomacy. The five scientists made important contributions to the founding and development of the Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East laboratory, located in Jordan.

2. New appointments: Mirit Stav-Mevora is the new Academic Secretary, heading the academic administration of the University. Michael Brandeis (Life Sciences, Faculty of Science) was elected as head of the Cornerstones Program for undergraduate students. Nissim Ben-Arie is the head of our Preparatory Program, and Lital Turgeman was nominated as the Administrative Director of the Program.

3. The rank titles "Lecturer" and "Senior Lecturer" (that are associated with the degree “Dr.”) cause some confusion in certain countries, mainly in the U.S. We are required to use these titles in Hebrew, but when publishing abroad, in academic articles and conferences, this rank title may be translated as Assistant Professor.

4. The PBC funding model: As detailed below, the PBC has calculated the public funding of the Israeli universities per faculty members. Our achievements according to this measure is suboptimal.

		Average funding (in thousands of NIS) per faculty member
Parameter	HU		Technion	TAU	BIU	Haifa	BGU	Weizmann	Ariel	total
Undergrads	327		576	381	285	298	472	-	561	365
Master students	199		194	219	273	288	170	64	45	196
Total teaching	526		770	600	558	586	641	64	606	561
Funds	270		346	225	118	73	123	563	8	212
Publications	201		226	209	214	233	170	177	84	196
Phd students	75		169	76	92	59	89	10	3	84
Transfer of knowledge	52		148	64	44	19	87	79	30	65
Research master	12		14	13	12	14	11	5	3	11
Total research	610		903	587	480	398	480	92	127	569
Total per faculty member	1,135		1,674	1,187	1,038	984	1,121	990	733	1,130
Total faculty (2016)	955		512	1,023	664	556	807	410	334	5,261
Total income	1,083,985		856,409	1,214,392	689,696	546,830	904,689	406,049	244,876	5,946,926
Compare to average	100.4		148.1	105.0	91.8	87.0	99.2	87.6	64.9	100.0
Teaching	501,967		394,165	614,182	371,018	325,548	517,598	26,318	202,429	2,953,225
Research	582,018		462,244	600,210	318,678	221,282	387,091	379,731	42,440	2,993,694
Total	1,083,985		856,409	1,214,392	689,696	546,830	904,689	406,049	244,869	5,946,919

Income per faculty member (thousands of NIS)

Field	Para-meter	HU	Technion	TAU	BIU	Haifa	BGU	Weiz-mann	Ariel	Total
Humanities	הוראה	225	-	324	202	650	263	-	74	308
	מחקר	417	-	268	285	302	293	-	336	310
	סגל	196	7	240	231	145	130	-	19	969
Education	הוראה	430	502	583	753	428	690	180	-	530
	מחקר	256	500	483	320	374	281	260	-	351
	סגל	36	11	36	37	52	24	14	-	211
Social Sciences	הוראה	360	112	426	606	525	443	-	380	449
	מחקר	329	53	430	342	459	434	-	97	345
	סגל	192	19	126	152	137	110	-	108	844
Business	הוראה	438	-	414	2,866	537	632	-	1,077	688
	מחקר	211	-	134	645	562	149	-	135	214
	סגל	30	-	63	11	13	48	-	13	179
Law	הוראה	336	-	407	910	289	-	-	-	472
	מחקר	268	-	305	381	250	-	-	-	300
	סגל	37	-	39	30	30	-	-	-	136
Medicine	הוראה	1,059	1,067	1,091	1,289	1,156	831	-	514	1,019
	מחקר	844	754	519	329	511	435	-	84	575
	סגל	140	39	136	21	68	97	-	28	529
Math and Computer Sciences	הוראה	517	390	342	573	566	515	54	394	428
	מחקר	613	757	797	571	330	373	1,026	125	616
	סגל	100	79	94	51	54	63	46	27	514
Physics	הוראה	490	366	430	382	-	373	51	174	291
	מחקר	1,170	1,160	1,130	1,130	-	604	697	107	883
	סגל	91	55	74	52	-	78	171	24	545
Biology and Agriculture	הוראה	778	361	832	979	219	430	70	329	479
	מחקר	948	1,286	1,281	1,087	488	654	1,169	192	999
	סגל	132	31	95	48	57	75	180	11	630
Engineering	הוראה	-	1,046	1,066	703	-	1,177	-	1,093	1,075
	מחקר	-	971	777	751	-	693	-	129	734
	סגל	-	270	121	30	-	181	-	103	705
Average per faculty member teaching		525	770	600	558	586	641	64	606	561
Average per faculty member research		610	903	587	480	398	480	926	127	569

As can be noted, we are especially under-achieving in the area of teaching in the non-experimental studies. We should work harder to improve our teaching in all fields in order to make the HU a more attractive place for all students. Thank you for your efforts in this direction.

Please find here the results (in Hebrew) of our annual students’ satisfaction survey.

Best, Barak

Rector's Update - February 2019

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