Nitza Davidovitch

Performance Measures of Academic Faculty--A Case Study.

This case study is the first to track the method used by an Israeli institution of higher education to assess and reward faculty members using a set of performance measures (‘Excellence criteria’). The study profiles faculty members who received financial rewards for excellence during 2005–2007, based on the previous year’s activities, as measured by their performance in traditional roles of higher education: research, teaching and academic administration, as well as contribution to the community. Faculty members’ performance measures were also analysed for correlations with individual and occupational data. Specifically, the study examined links between the achievements of the faculty members, personal features (gender, age, seniority) and elements related to their academic work (rank, tenure, representation on senate committees). The study is grounded on the premise that quality measures of academic faculty are significant – and influential – for a truly holistic appraisal of academic staff. The study concludes that the institution successfully managed to institute a performance-based method of assessment and reward.

College–University Dialogue: From Confrontation to Cooperation

A historical review of the development of Israeli institutions of higher education from statehood to the present attests to the dialogue between universities, on one hand, and the colleges that were established and developed under their influence. Development trends, reflecting diversification, and distinctiveness on the one hand, and uniformity and imitation on the other, indicate that the Israeli higher education system is progressing toward a monistic structure in which academic institutions of both types are converging, drawing closer to each other, and becoming more closely integrated in a single system of higher education (Davidovitch and Iram, 2005). Herein we examine the openness of the higher education system, its willingness, and ability to contain a university institution that was originally established as a regional college. At the establishment of statehood in 1948, the higher education system was a dual system: several non-university institutions operated alongside the two university institutions (Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Technion). Mass immigration and socioeconomic developments in the 1960s and 1970s led to an increasing demand for higher education, and demands to expand access of new population sectors to higher education emerged, specifically to make higher education accessible to underrepresented sectors of the population in peripheral areas (mainly Jews of North African or Asian origin, as well as Arabs and other minority groups) (Iram, 1996). These nascent needs were addressed on two levels. On the university level, Haifa University, Ben Gurion University, and the Open University were established in 1970, 1972, and 1976, respectively. Although Haifa University and Ben Gurion University were founded as regional universities and were therefore expected to serve the special needs of the peripheral areas of the north and south, respectively, they effectively embraced the elitist ethos of the veteran research universities (Ben David, 1986, cited in Iram, 1996). In the 1960s, relatively few students graduated from high school and obtained a matriculation certificate, and thus few programs and faculties required a selective admission process. The introduction of free compulsory high school increased the matriculating student population and the number of potential university candidates. Chapter 21 College–University Dialogue: From Confrontation to Cooperation

The law of limited excellence: publication productivity of Israel Prize laureates in the life and exact sciences

The present paper extends Lotka’s theorem—which we rename as “the law of limited excellence”—while empirically modelling the scientific productivity of 46 Israel Prize laureates in the life and exact sciences—a group best described as ‘Star Scientists’. By focusing on this highly selective group we expose unequal scientific productivity even amongst Israel’s most prolific scientists. Specifically, we test the invariance of Lotka’s law by focusing attention on the extreme tail of publication distributions while empirically exploring the non-linearity of its seemingly “flat” tail. By exposing the rarity of excellence even in this extreme end of publication productivity we extend the generality of Lotka’s theorem and expose that—like a fractal—the tail of excellence behaves as the entire distribution. We end this empirical contribution by suggesting a few implications for research and policy.

Collapse of Monopoly Privilege: from college to university

This article focuses on the erosion of the monopoly by universities of the higher education system in Israel. The hegemony of the universities, the major player in the academic field, has been shattered by the development of the regional colleges that unsettled the preconceptions concerning the higher education system in Israel, including the goals, student profiles, curricula and organizational structure of the various types of academic institutions. This article examines how colleges and universities, the two major types of higher education institutions in Israel, were affected by enhanced access to higher education in the past decade.

Contemporary Challenges of Higher Education in Israel

Higher education policy in Israel has many faces. On the one hand, policy reflects an approach that expresses common public interest and realization of public goals (i.e., quantity – increasing access to higher education for the general public), and on the other hand, higher education policy adheres to an approach that promotes academic-research interests and its goals (i.e., quality – excellence in scientific outputs), with emphasis on the lofty goal of producing new knowledge for humanity. The primary challenge of such a policy that concurrently embraces two approaches (which are potentially either complementary or mutually harmful, depending on your point of view), is a matter of proportions: which approach drives decision making in higher education, and which is merely a by-product of this policy. In the second decade of the twenty-first century, as the number of students soars, we are witnesses to higher education’s transformation into a product for the masses, a change that requires countries worldwide to find new models of academic leadership if they wish to maintain a balance between society’s needs and the needs of science and increased academic productivity. This chapter discusses the challenges of higher education in Israel, Israel’s attempt to respond to these challenges, and the strengths and weaknesses of the solution in light of the winds of change in Israel and global trends.

Paradoxes in Higher Education: Universities versus Academic Colleges.

This article deals with paradoxical relationships between Israeli universities and colleges and their effect on the system of higher education. The article analyzes the history of the higher-education discourse, ranging from patronizing and domineering relations to collaboration based on the recognition that Israels entire system of higher education is headed in the same direction. Dialogue between the different types of academic schools in Israel is examined in light of the historical-organizational evolution of both universities and colleges. Paradoxical relationships are examined in light of the goals of the various schools, distinctive features of their student populations, their curricula, and their organizational structure. The article illuminates one of the most dynamic and paradoxical dialogues in Israel in the past decade and suggests a potential scenario encompassing the impact of this dialogue on Israels entire system of higher education. The authors believe that the case of Israel can contribute to at least two important discussions in the field of international and comparative education: (1) the influence of local and global forces on education policy; and (2) policy implementation and the connection between policy and practice. Discussion of the case of Israel and the paradigmatic transformation of higher education may shed light on implications for the field of higher education worldwide.

Academe and the field: a case study of a physical therapy program

Abstract Background: The present study focuses on the academic activities of a service-oriented department and the practical training it provides to students in the undergraduate physical therapy program. This profession has significant importance in Israel due to the large number of war and terrorist attack victims as well as the high rate of traffic accidents. In addition, ever-rising life expectancies are expanding the number of patients who need professional help.Objective: The research aims to analyze the satisfaction of department graduates with their academic training and practical experiences. Such information can be used to reinforce the connection between the department’s teaching program and the students’ final achievements as well as the conditions and terms of employment after graduation. Study group: The present study was based on a survey of 109 graduates of the Department of Physical Therapy at the Ariel University Center in Israel. Methods: Data were collected through an analytical cross-section survey administered online. Results: The findings point to the academe’s contribution to practical work in the field. No correlation was found between graduates’ profiles upon admission and their achievements in the program and at work, their studies toward advanced degrees, and their satisfaction with their training program and their work. Work condition was also identified as a factor that undermined work satisfaction. Conclusions: This case study points to the significance of a close association between the academe and the field in reducing the differences between students’ final achievements in the program and their subsequent work conditions in the field.

Coping with learning disabilities in academic institutions: experience from Israel

Abstract Background: The evolving awareness of learning disabilities (LDs) has been accompanied by a change in legislation, resulting in greater access to higher education by individuals with LDs, a group previously excluded from such educational options. The present study explored the accommodations granted in 2010 to students identified as having LDs at the Ariel University Center, based on a proposed typology of LD accommodations. We explored possible connections between claims for LD accommodations and demographic data such as accommodation type, country of birth, gender, faculty, and academic status. Methods: The study population included 9021 students at the Ariel University Center of Samaria in 2010. The sample population comprises two groups: students diagnosed with LDs (n=941, 10.4%) and undiagnosed students (n=8080, 89.6%). Results: Findings indicated a statistically significant correlation between faculty and LD accommodations. Of all accommodations, a time extension on exams was the most common. Conclusions: We conclude that differences in the prevalence of LD accommodations may be traced to differences in students’ needs for such support. Based on the current ease with which accommodations are awarded, the potential implications of such accommodations for the entire student body, and the potential discrimination against non-diagnosed students, institutions should tighten institutional criteria for awarding accommodations to students diagnosed with LDs and should make the award of passive accommodations conditional upon student participation in active accommodations. Finally, a follow-up study is proposed to explore the associations between the type of accommodations granted to students and students’ academic achievements.

The Struggle for Legitimacy: Academic Colleges on the Map of Higher Education in Israel.

This article addresses a unique relationship evolving between the two major categories of higher learning institutions in Israel: the countrys universities, and the colleges that were established in their shadow. The history of higher education is outlined, stressing the initial dominance of the research universities, and explaining the gradual transformation of its elitist orientation into a more populist one. The article further explains how that transformation led to the establishment of colleges as affiliates of their ‘parent’ universities, functioning under their full supervision, describing how that model eventually led the Council for Higher Education (CHE) to encourage (in 2000) the development of non-university higher education institutions to secure equal opportunities to broad groups of population. The article goes on to analyze the methods of curricula and teaching development in the colleges, touching upon the development of graduate programs in non-university institutions. It concludes that the initial intention of the CHE to establish a dual system of research universities and popular colleges is developing into a monistic system following the research university concept and model.

Who Are Students of Physical Therapy? A Case Study: The Academic College of Judea and Samaria and the Ben Gurion University

This study focuses on the attributes of students of Physical Therapy, and compares the profiles of students of Physical Therapy in two institutions of higher learning in Israel, Ben Gurion University (BGU) and the Academic College of Judea and Samaria (ACJS), Israels largest public academic college. This study focuses on this department, where studies have an occupational/applicative/practical orientation and a high status in the higher education system.