Tel Aviv and Bar-Ilan Universities will have fewer applicants for this academic year, which opens next month, than for last year, according to unofficial application figures. But applications for the other four universities have remained stable or risen slightly, according to data collected at Haaretz's request.

The number of students who applied to Bar-Ilan University declined by two to three percent compared to last year. At Tel Aviv University (TAU), though registration is still open, only 11,286 students had applied by the end of August, compared to 12,196 last year, a drop of about 8 percent. This is TAU's second year of decline: The previous year saw a 6.5 percent drop in applicants. TAU's center for student registration says that by the time school starts, this year's decline should narrow to 7 percent.

Tel Aviv University is recovering from a serious budgetary deficit, accompanied by a rise in the number of students per class and a reduction in faculty. Since TAU is the largest university in central Israel, it does not invest as much in marketing itself as do colleges and other universities.