Dear faculty members,

I am happy to share some updates.

1. Congratulations: The Rothschild Prize, awarded by Yad Hanadiv, was awarded this year to four scholars in Humanities and Social Sciences. Two of the winners are Hebrew University faculty members: In Social Sciences, Prof. David Weisburd (Criminology, Faculty of Law); and in Humanities, Prof. Ruth Hacohen (Musicology, Faculty of Humanities). They were joined by two Tel Aviv University researchers (Nira Lieberman, Psychology; and Jeremy Cohen, Jewish Studies). The Landau Prize for Science was awarded this year to four researchers, one of them from the Hebrew University: Prof. David Enoch (Philosophy and Law) won the prize in the field of Philosophy Research (the other winners: Ami Volansky, Ido Amit and Roy Kishony). The Prize awardees received deserved recognition for their excellent scientific contributions.

2. Heads of Departments: Heads of two of the University’s divisions are completing a very successful term of office. The Head of Marketing and Communications, Ofra Ash, is moving on to serve as deputy director of the Or Movement. In two weeks, Michal Cohen, who joins us from the Israel Democracy Institute, will begin to serve as our new Head of Marketing and Communications. The CFO, Meir Bing, is moving on to serve as director general of the Ministry of Social Equality (his replacement has not yet been selected). Many thanks to Ofra and Meir for their outstanding contributions to the University’s success and for their great friendship and dedication, and good luck and welcome to Michal.

3. Adjustments due to “childbirth leave”. Following an initiative by a group of faculty members, the President's Advisor on the Advancement of Women in Science, Prof. Haya Lorberboum-Galski, and the senior academic staff union, the Standing Committee has decided on several accommodations for the needs of senior academic staff members in maternity leave. The full procedure is available here. Below is a summary:

*During their maternity leave, faculty members will not engage in teaching and related tasks, and will not hold academic administration positions, including membership in University committees, even if the task can be performed remotely.

*New arrangements have been made regarding the adjustment of the teaching load following childbirth and parenting leave. A faculty member who has been on full childbirth and parenting leave is entitled to a reduction of half of the normal full annual teaching load and another 2 or 4 credits (according to the conditions in the procedure). In addition, arrangements have been made for a reduction of one-third of the teaching load for a member of the faculty whose spouse gave birth and chooses to go on childbirth and parenting leave, as well as a 2-credit reduction in the teaching load for a spouse who does not exercise the eligibility for childbirth and parenting leave and requests a teaching load reduction for parenting reasons.

*An academic staff member who participates in an academic conference, in Israel or abroad, and who takes a child with her to the conference, is entitled to financing from the Science Relations Fund budget for flight and accommodation costs of an escort and the child. This applies to children up to the age of one-and-a-half-years old. Faculty members may exercise this privilege several times a year, without limitation. Entitlement has also been set for financing the flight and accommodation costs of an escort as aforesaid, as well as for financing special research expenses required due to a faculty member’s childbirth and parenting leave. 

These arrangements were set in recognition of our duty to respect the right to equality. They are not exhaustive, and in any case of unique difficulty, faculty members are invited to contact an appropriate office holder (the dean, the Rector or the President's Advisor), in order to formulate a suitable arrangement. I'm grateful to the faculty members who took part in advancing the updates to this procedure and to all of our faculty members for the continued commitment to integrating family life and high-level academic activity.

4. Special arrangements due to ramifications of the COVID-19 crisis for non-tenured faculty members who are parents of young children. During the COVID-19 crisis, starting in March 2020, faculty members who are parents of young children were forced to face special challenges. A year ago the University's administration established special arrangements for accommodating untenured faculty members. As the pandemic continued and too its negative impact on faculty members’ research activities and following an appeal pertaining to this subject made by a group of faculty members, the University administration, in coordination with the deans, decided on adjustments designed to accommodate these special difficulties. The arrangements apply to non-tenured faculty members, who are parents of young children (up to the age of 12). The full details are available here. Below are the main points:

Extension of the appointment period: The faculty member has the right to a one-year extension of the appointment period. The extension is in addition to the extension due to childbirth or for other circumstances. 

Promotions: The deans were instructed to examine the promotion of faculty members from the rank of lecturer to senior lecturer even before tenure, especially for those whose term of appointment was extended as aforesaid. 

Reduction in teaching load: Faculty members have the right to a one-time reduction in the teaching load in the 2022/2023 academic year. The reduction is 4 credits for an instructor who would normally teach 12 credits, and a reduction of 2 credits for others. 

Academic Administration Positions: Staff members will not be assigned academic management and administration positions (except for the role of advisor to undergraduate or master’s degree students).

Assistance in financing research activities: The University will work to provide financial assistance to fund special research expenditures required due to the difficulties created as a result of delays in advancing research during the COVID-19 crisis.

In this context, too, these arrangements are not exhaustive. The deans have been instructed to consider applying further individual accommodations, as necessary.

5. Diversity and partnership: Our University is blessed with a diverse student body, which includes about 26,000 students. However, diversity alone is not enough to promote partnership, acquaintance with those from different backgrounds and lowering the walls of fear. Led by the President, the Vice President for Diversity and Strategy, the Head of the Diversity Unit, the Dean of Students and the staff of the Equal Opportunities Unit within the Dean of Students office, the University has expanded activities in this field significantly. With the help of a generous donation from the Schusterman Foundation, the University has launched the "Meeting Points" program. Among other things, the program includes activities for learning in diverse groups, running workshops (through the Teaching and Learning Unit, with the assistance of the Accord Center operating at the University) to guide teachers in the manner of sustaining the trinity of intergroup components in teaching, cultural activities, expanding the opportunity to learn spoken Arabic, and more. This is a long-term move, the success of which is critical to the fulfillment of our goals, and its aim is to radiate positively outside the walls of the University as well. All members of the University community are expected to participate in the effort to promote equality and strengthen the sense of belonging and security for students from all groups.

6. Student Satisfaction Survey: The results regarding the University as a whole and the individual faculties are available here. In the coming days, the deans will distribute a report for each faculty, detailing the results for each department. The trend is positive. Despite the challenges of COVID-19 and the increase in the number of students, there is a noticeable continued high level of student satisfaction.

Table 1 presents the summary of the data by faculties. As mentioned, segmentation according to each departments will be sent separately. [Possible answers are in the range of 1 to 5 (1-not at all satisfied; 2-low satisfaction; 3-medium; 4-high; 5-very high) and the reported figure is the average. The survey was conducted in the summer of 2021, and 7,700 undergraduate students responded (about 41%)]:

Table 1. Student Satisfaction	General satisfaction		Academic contribution of studies		The treatment given by the academic staff		Teaching secretariat services
	2020	2021	2020	2021	2020	2021	2020	2021
All of the University	3.82	3.89	3.79	3.95	3.73	3.78	4.03	3.99
Humanities	3.99	3.97	4.12	4.05	4.19	4.07	4.27	4.15
Social Sciences	3.87	3.92	3.78	3.84	3.90	3.83	4.23	4.02
Law	3.97	3.97	3.91	4.01	3.72	3.74	4.00	3.82
Social work	3.82	3.80	3.67	3.85	4.03	3.98	4.08	4.08
Business Administration	3.78	3.81	3.59	3.76	3.63	3.73	3.82	3.76
Education	3.95	3.98	3.74	3.91	4.13	4.10	4.16	4.07
Natural sciences	3.73	3.93	3.86	4.07	3.72	3.85	4.06	4.08
Computer Science	3.62	3.81	3.81	3.94	3.34	3.51	3.79	3.90
Agriculture	3.64	3.82	3.45	3.84	3.41	3.61	3.85	3.96
Veterinary	3.64	3.50	3.30	3.59	3.51	3.34	3.99	4.08
Medicine	3.88	3.94	3.77	4.04	3.61	3.67	3.95	3.96
Dentistry	3.98	3.91	3.93	4.19	3.62	3.61	4.09	4.12

 

The improvement in students' assessment of the contribution of their studies to the development of skills and the expansion of knowledge stands out. There is a correlation between increasing active learning and improvement in this aspect, and we aim to continue in this direction.

 

Thanks to the dedication and professionalism of the University’s academic and administrative staff members, we have been blessed with continued improvement in student satisfaction for the fourth year in a row (Table 2):The improvement in students' assessment of the contribution of their studies to the development of skills and the expansion of knowledge stands out. There is a correlation between increasing active learning and improvement in this aspect, and we aim to continue in this direction.

As always, we do not rest on our laurels. The reports include many details, including qualitative notes, and all heads of academic units should study the data well and establish a detailed work plan to achieve improvement. There are still units in which the level of student satisfaction is lower than acceptable, and much work is required.

7. Research: The University continues in its growth not only in terms of the number of students but also in terms of the research contribution of its outstanding faculty members. The Planning and Budgeting Committee research model provides a snapshot of our relative position in terms of quantitative evaluation of research (according to the PBC's research model, approximately NIS 3.1 billion is allocated to the universities based  on the relative achievements of each institution's researchers in publications (after weighting the Impact Factor of the journals in which the articles were published) (34%); winning competitive research grants (37%); winning other research grants (12%); and research students (17%). As it does every year, the University’s Strategic Planning Unit has prepared a detailed report on the University's achievements. The report is available here; the reports for each unit were sent to the various deans and will be distributed.

The data below (Table 3) presents the share (in percentages) of each institution in the PBC research pie. The data for 2022 reflect the research activity a few years ago (publications in 2018 and 2019; grants won in 2019 and 2020; and research students in 2020). Based on the latest date, we estimate that this four-year growth trend will continue.

3. PBC Research model (%)	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022
HUJI	21.2	20.2	19.7	19.8	20.3	20.5
Tel Aviv	19.3	19.8	20.3	19.9	19.6	19.5
Technion	15.0	15.6	15.7	15.6	15.6	15.4
Weizmann	14.4	13.7	12.9	13.3	13.7	13.9
Ben Gurion	12.5	12.5	13.1	12.7	12.5	12.5
Bar Ilan	10.6	10.9	10.8	10.8	10.4	10.4
Haifa	7.0	7.3	7.5	7.9	7.9	7.8

 

This trend of improvement in our contribution to research is conditional on the continued investment in research infrastructure. This is the primary goal of the University administration, and most of our efforts are invested in advancing this goal.

In the field of publications, a new system for automatically associating publications to the various institutions is expected to start operating in the coming months. The system, known as CRIS (Current Research Information System) is of the Pure type (from the Elsevier company). In order to activate it, all faculty members must use the Hebrew University’s ORCID ID. Prof. Berta Levavi-Sivan continues to lead the implementation of the system at the University.

8. Gifts. The University’s fundraising activity, led by the President, the Vice President for External Relations and the External Relations Division, continues in full force. After last year’s record, in which $146 million was raised, representing the highest amount in the University’s history raised in one year, the record was broken again, and $151 million was raised this year. The donations are intended primarily for development purposes, research activities and scholarships. Of these donations, 26 individuals and entities donated over a million dollars each. Another 1,800 donors donated under $1 million each.

On October 1, 2018, we launched an ambitious fundraising campaign to raise $1 billion over seven years, marking the centenary of the University's founding (from the laying of the cornerstones, in 1918, to the inauguration of the University, in 1925). As of September 30, 2021, marking four full years of the fundraising campaign, that is, after 57% of the campaign time has elapsed, the University has raised $533 million, about 53% of the target amount. This is an excellent achievement. In accordance with the University's policy, all academic units are participating in raising donations, in coordination with the External Relations Department.

In addition, thanks to the increase in donations and especially due to the tide in the capital markets, the University's endowment has grown considerably. The endowment managed in Israel has reached NIS 2.3 billion, and along with the funds managed by Friends of the University abroad, its current value is just over NIS 5 billion (about $ 1.6 billion). This endowment places us in around 45th in the United States and probably second in Israel, after the Weizmann Institute. The return generated by the endowment is used to fund research and teaching activities at the University.

Finally, as we reported last week, the move to develop land reserves owned by the University is in progress. The University’s Vice President and Director General is leading the plan, investing a great deal of effort, together with the staff of the Hebrew University's Assets Company. Completion of the moves to actualize land reserves on Mount Scopus, on the Safra campus in Givat Ram and on Rehovot campus, is expected to yield within seven years a sum of money that is expected to double the University’s endowment which is managed in Israel. It will thus contribute significantly to the strengthening of the University’s financial stability. The move will also include construction of new dormitory buildings for students and faculty.

 

Thank you all for your hard work. Your comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

Sincerely,

Barak Medina