To the University Community,
Greetings,
As the 2019/2020 school year opens, we wish all of us a fruitful year filled with satisfaction.
Unfortunately, we begin with sad news: Mort Mandel, one of the most important supporters and donors in the history of the University, passed away on October 16th this year. With the assistance of the Mandel Foundation we established the Scolion Institute for Interdepartmental Research in the Humanities and the Mandel School for Advanced Studies in the Humanities. Mort contributed an enormous contribution for promoting the Humanities in the University, in Israel and around the world. May his memory be blessed.
The coming lines provide an update on the main developments in the University and the challenges we are facing.
Students: Further to the trend that began in 2018/2019, in the year 2019/2020 there is a significant increase in student numbers, a real jump, in the number of students who chose to study at the Hebrew University, for bachelor’s and master’s degrees, in nearly all of the Faculties and the Schools. The exact numbers will be calculated next week, however it is possible to estimate that we are speaking about an increase of about 17% in the number of students in the first year for a bachelor’s degree and about 15% in the number of students in the first year for a master’s degree. This welcome rise in the number of students was achieved without lowering the admission criteria (in a number of departments the admission threshold was even raised) and it is the result of a joint effort by many among the University community. An important aspect in this regard is the moderate rise, for the first time in five years, in the grade granted to us by the students in the indices regarding overall satisfaction with their studies at the University (the grade for 2017/2018 was 3.8 on a scale of 1 to 5, where 5 is very great satisfaction, 4 is good satisfaction, 3 is moderate satisfaction. Furthermore there is a significant rise in the number of Haredi students (a rise of 25% in bachelor’s degree students who define themselves as Haredi) and the number of Arab students in the University (about 18% of the first year students for a bachelor’s degree in 2019/2020 are Arab). In addition, we continue to lead in the number (and quality) of students for a doctoral degree in Israel, and this includes some 200 doctoral students from abroad; and a number of post-doctorates (about one fourth of all those doing their post-doc do it at the Hebrew University, nearly 700 post-docs, about half of them from abroad).
The welcome increase in the number of students in the University may reach an increase of close to 2,000 students as compared to last year, and this places before all of us, administrative staff, and senior and junior academic staff, clear challenges in a variety of areas. One of them is in the matter of travel for the three campuses in Jerusalem and in order to ease the heavy traffic even a little, we will operate a system of transportation without payment. Other challenges are in the field of service to students and the personal regard to each and every one of them. In this framework we will continue also this year with the program of personal accompaniment (“mentors”) of first year students for a bachelor’s degree (and for a master’s degree in certain units) by members of the senior academic staff and in many additional projects.
Administrative Staff: The Administrative staff at the University has close to 2,000 members who are employed in about 1,760 full time positions, in accordance with the target set in the University’s Recovery Agreement. We are in the midst of a process of reexamining the positions in many fields, and this includes: support for research in the labs and in the units for interdisciplinary equipment, computer coordinators in the units, employees of the Library Authority, the team of secretariats for teaching and students, the field of human resources, and more. During the course of the 2019/2020 school year we have rebuilt the Student Administration Division, which includes a number of units and also the new career center. Furthermore, the title for the position of academic secretaries for teaching in the Faculties has been changed to heads of the field of teaching and studies.
Academic staff: The University is in the midst of a process to increase the number of academic staff members. Towards the school year 2019/2020 about 50 new staff members are joining, while about 25 members are retiring. The University continues to be a chosen place for leading researchers from Israel and abroad. The main bottleneck in absorbing additional staff members is the construction of labs for the researchers in the experimental sciences. Development of physical infrastructure in order to enable research at the highest level is a priority of the University.
Computerization: A few days ago the new SAP system began operating. This is new computerized system for management of finances, purchases and research budgets. This system replaces the old systems which were in use until now and it has the ability to enable all of us to have more efficient and up-to-date management of the various financial systems in the University. The University has invested great efforts in order to make the introduction of the new system as smooth as possible. Now is the time to thank all of the many employees of the University who have invested days and nights in preparation of the system for operation, including time during the Succoth vacation. Due to the complexity of the system, we anticipate that there will be a process of adaptation that will not be simple and may often be frustrating. We ask for your patience. At the end of the process we will have a modern financial system as appropriate for every advanced organization.
We are also continuing with preparations to upgrade additional computerization systems in the University. Over the course of the coming two years we will introduce a new system to handle personnel and a new system for staff and students, which will replace the system for registration to the University and the academic management.
In the past year and in the coming year we will continue to invest in a significant improvement of communications infrastructure and in upgrading the University’s cyber protection.
The Hi-Tech Park: A few weeks ago through a tender we chose a company that will build the Hi-Tech Park at the edge of the Safra Campus at Givat Ram. The Company that we chose, Gav-Yam, is one of the largest real estate companies in Israel and leading in construction of facilities for hi-tech. We estimate that within a few months we will receive the required building permit and construction of the Park will begin.
Upon completion of the project, there will be about 150,000 square meters of commercial space designed for elite technological industries and will house about 5,000 employees. In addition to the economic importance of the Park to the University, we believe that it has great potential to strengthen ties between these industries and the many researchers in the University whose work is liked to industry. The first building of the Park, on an area of about 25,000 sq.m. is expected to be completed at the beginning of the year 2023 and the Lightricks Company is supposed to enter it. This is a company that was founded by doctoral students of the University and now is located in the hi-tech village on the Safra Campus. The space in the hi-tech village is not sufficient for the activities of the company. In order to enable the company to operate until the building in the Park is complete, we are temporarily renting the Belgium House to it. The existing Belgium Faculty Club House will temporarily stop. A significant part of the rental monies that are received from the company will be invested in a massive renovation of the Faculty Club House (which is clearly in need of renovation) after the company moves to its home in the Park. It is important to note that the cafeteria in the Belgium House will be renovated and will continue to operate throughout this entire period.
Additional Matters: we will review briefly additional central issues and some will be detailed in letters sent to you in the course of the year.
- We approved the University’s ongoing budget for the coming year. The budget is in the scope of about NIS 2.2 billion. This is a balanced budget but tight, that will enable us in a limited manner to improve the required physical infrastructure.
- We are continuing development of our internationality on the different campuses. As with other areas, there is a need for construction of appropriate infrastructure (computerization, signage, marketing, and more). Our international activities are continuing to increase and we will update you about this in a separate letter by the Vice President for Internationality.
- The light rail: The good news is that in 2024 or 2025 the University’s three Jerusalem campuses will be connected by the light rail, which will bring about a dramatic positive change. However, until then, alternately, there will be work carried out on our campuses. The work on the Ein Kerem Campus is proceeding as planned, and in the coming months it is anticipated that there will be a let up with the progress of the work. On Mount Scopus work that began last year is now nearing an intermediate completion, however soon work will begin in the tunnel that leads into the campus. On the Safra Campus work for the light rail is anticipated to begin in the winter months, and we are working to limit the harm to transportation on the campus.
- Research at the University continues at a very high level, with good successes and impressive scientific achievements. At the same time, as we have already said in previous updates, we have not yet succeeded in bringing about a change in the trend of decreasing our relative portion in the scope of scientific research as compared to other academic institutions in Israel, something which is expressed in a decrease, however slight, in the allocation of the PBC for research in the University (calculated on winning competitive grants and academic publications). We hope that the combination of factors, including the increase in the number of staff, efforts by the staff members, promotion of the culture of publications, increasing support for funding scholarships for students for advanced studies and improvement of the research infrastructure, will produce fruit already in the near future. Most of the academic units have already joined the process of reporting, twice a year, on the publications of staff members in their unit.
Wishing all of us an enjoyable and successful academic year!
Prof. Barak Medina Prof. Asher Cohen Mr. Yishai Fraenkel
Rector President Vice President and Director General