The Council for Higher Education in Israel (, ''HaMo'atza LeHaskala Gevoha'') is a supervisory body for universities and colleges in

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. It is the only organization with the authority to award academic

educational accreditation Educational accreditation is a quality assurance process under which services and operations of educational institutions or programs are evaluated and verified by an external body to determine whether applicable and recognized standards are me ...

. The head of the council is always the

minister of education An education minister (sometimes minister of education) is a position in the governments of some countries responsible for dealing with educational matters. Where known, the government department, ministry, or agency that develops policy and deli ...

, and at least two-thirds of its members are academics. The council is located in Albert Einstein Square,

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

, next to the

Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, based in Jerusalem, was established in 1961 by the State of Israel to foster contact between Israeli scholars in the sciences and humanities and create a think tank for advising the government on res ...

History

The council was established in 1958. At that time most of the academic institutions were dependent on the governmental budget, and there was concern among academics that the government would politically influence higher education institutions. In 1956 the government appointed a special committee, which was supposed to advise the government how to act, in order to assure that no ruling political party will be able to influence the academic institutions. The Governor of the

Bank of Israel The Bank of Israel (, ) is the central bank of Israel. The bank's headquarters is located in Kiryat HaMemshala in Jerusalem with a branch office in Tel Aviv. The current governor is Amir Yaron. The primary objective of the Bank of Israel is to ...

David Horowitz David Joel Horowitz (January 10, 1939 – April 29, 2025) was an American conservative writer and activist. He was a founder and president of the David Horowitz Freedom Center (DHFC); editor of the Center's website '' FrontPage Magazine''; and ...

, was the head of the committee, which advised the government to appoint a special apolitical and academic council which would supervise the functioning of the academic institutions and their relations with the government. Soon after, in 1958, the Knesset passed the Council for Higher Education Law, which established the organisation. In December 2005, new legislation came into force, which enlarged the student representation at the council from one to two members, one for university students and one for college students.

Structure and responsibilities

The total budget of the council, which is funded by the government, is 6 billion NIS per year, which is then transferred to the public universities and colleges. Among its duties, the council is responsible for the establishment of new universities and the expansion of existing universities. The council has controlled

Ariel University Ariel University (), previously a public college known as the Ariel University Center of Samaria, is an Israeli university located in the urban Israeli settlement of Ariel in the West Bank. The college preceding the establishment of Ariel Unive ...

and other

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

institutions since February 2018 after the

Knesset The Knesset ( , ) is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Israel. The Knesset passes all laws, elects the President of Israel, president and Prime Minister of Israel, prime minister, approves the Cabinet of Israel, cabinet, and supe ...

voted to give it that authority. The council had previously had no legal standing in the occupied West Bank; Israeli universities and colleges there had instead been supervised by the , which had been formed by a military decree and was abolished by the same February 2018 Knesset vote. The most important body of the council is the committee for budget and planning, which deals with the division of funding between the various universities and colleges.

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control 1958 establishments in Israel Educational organizations established in 1958

Council for Higher Education in Israel The Council for Higher Education in Israel (, ''HaMo'atza LeHaskala Gevoha'') is a supervisory body for universities and colleges in Israel. It is the only organization with the authority to award academic educational accreditation. The head of th ...

Education in Israel School accreditors Higher education authorities

History

Structure and responsibilities

See also

References

External links