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Rector's Update - September 2018 | Office of the Rector

Rector's Update - September 2018

13 September, 2018

 

 

Dear Colleagues,

I am happy to share with you some updates regarding students and teaching at the Hebrew University as we prepare for the forthcoming 2018/19 academic year. I will send an update about matters of research in a separate message.

1. Number of Students. We are now concluding the admission process and the results are positive.

In the area of undergraduate studies, we operate in a challenging environment. We rely quite exclusively on Israeli students, and the number of potential students who meet our high admission criteria shrinks annually. In fact, the number of new undergraduate students in all six Israeli universities has decreased in recent years by 2.5% annually. This challenging atmosphere notwithstanding, and without compromising in terms of the admission criteria, which remain the highest in the country, I am happy to report that the number of our new undergraduate students in 2018/19 will increase by 3 to 5% in comparison to 2017/18. The total number of undergraduate students who are expected to study at the Hebrew University this year is about 5,000 at Mt. Scopus and approximately 6,300 in the three “experimental-studies” campuses.

As for graduate studies, we also expect a growth of 5 to 8%. In total, at Mt. Scopus approximately 3,700 master-degree students and 1,000 doctoral students will study, and in the other three campuses approximately 2,600 master-degree students and 1,400 doctoral students. The total number of degree-students will reach 20,000, with an additional 3,000 students in other programs.

An increase in the number of students is essential for the HU. We aim at increasing our share in the body of university students from 16-17% to at least 20%. To achieve this aim we will continue our efforts to improve the administrative and academic services that we offer our students. In the undergraduate context, our main targets are increasing the number of minority students, mostly from the Arab-Palestinian and the Haredi sectors, as well as winning governmental bids. Our central aim is to increase the number of graduate students, mostly in STEM, by providing competitive scholarships, increasing the level of satisfaction of our undergraduate students, and attracting a substantially greater number of international students.

2. Students from East Jerusalem. In recent years, we have witnessed a substantial increase in the number of Arab-Palestinian East-Jerusalemites at the University. This trend has grown this year, and the ratio of this group of students among our first year undergraduates in expected to reach 8%. We also offer special Honors Programs to undergraduate as well as high school students among this group.

Members of the Hebrew University’s community, primarily through the leadership of the office of the Dean of Student, are involved in numerous informal activities, aimed at enhancing Arab-Jewish co-existence. Among these, a project, initiated by a group of female students, offering free Hebrew language studies to women from East Jerusalem at the Mt. Scopus campus; Arab language courses taught to faculty members; a group of faculty members have organized participation in a “Runners without Borders” race (those interested are invited to contact hujilelogvulot@gmail.com); and more. Attached here is a newsletter (in Hebrew) of our Center for Diversity and Multi-Culturalism on additional information on related aspects.

The PBC and government in general support and encourage our efforts to integrate Arab-Palestinian East-Jerusalemites. In contrast, the government strongly discourages integrating Arab-Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza as students at the University. We discuss possible amendments to the current policy with government officials.

3. Quality of Teaching. We must work hard to provide our excellent students a better learning experience at the Hebrew University. In general, the students evaluate our quality of teaching, mostly as measured in terms of the contribution of their studies to developing thinking skills and challenging them, as insufficient.  While the critique might be somewhat too harsh, as our graduates are very highly regarded, we should take this feedback seriously.

Please make sure that you provide the students with suitable intellectual challenges. Consider avoiding requiring them to merely memorize information (and thus consider moving from closed-book exams to open-book ones, as well as alternative evaluation schemes). Share with other faculty members successful teaching methods and participate in our teaching workshops. 

4. Mentoring. We continue with our mentoring program. Each faculty member is invited to mentor from 5 to 10 undergraduate students. Share with the students your academic interests, express interest in their background, fields of interest, and encourage them to share with you their concerns and dilemmas. Show the students that we care.

5. Doctoral Studies. We encourage forming interdisciplinary doctoral-students groups. This project provides important intellectual and social support for the PhD students, and you may want to encourage your students to participate (please see a report here).

We are now re-evaluating our doctoral studies program, and an ad-hoc committee was set up to offer possible revisions. Please send your recommendation to the committee’s chair, Vice-Rector Assaf Friedler (assaf.friedler@mail.huji.ac.il).

6. Light Rail. (The construction work of the) Jerusalem Light Rain arrives to our three Jerusalem campuses. Transportation and parking arrangements will be worse before they dramatically improve in the next few years. More details here.

Yours,

Barak