Israeli research excels despite declining university budgets

Many of Israel’s universities are still global leaders in scientific research, even though Israel spends less than the OECD average on its universities on a per-student basis, according to a report by the Technion. The report, produced by the university’s Samuel Neaman Institute for National Policy Research, found that Israel ranks among the top 10 nations in research in fields including computer science, chemistry, physics, biology, business management and economics.

Students at an Israeli university. Photo by Emil Salman

Four Israeli research universities stand out in international rankings – Hebrew University, the Technion, the Weizmann Institute of Science and Tel Aviv University. They are still ranking highly on international lists despite the crisis facing Israel’s higher education over the past decade due to poor management and budget erosion. The crisis harmed research infrastructure and instruction quality, significantly reducing staff and sending Israeli academics abroad.

“The state of research in Israel relative to that abroad is a source of pride, but this is the result of investments made in the 1980s,” said Prof. Uri Kirsch, who conducted the research. “It’s too early to say what the long-term effects will be of the crisis over the last decade. We need to look not just at what our relative place is in research quality, but whether we stayed in the same place relative to countries such as Iran, Turkey and countries in the Far East, which have invested massive sums in higher education over the past few years.”