Universities scramble for students as colleges get stronger

In keeping with a general trend toward privatization, colleges in Israel are getting stronger at the expense of universities. Last year, for the first time in the history of the state, more students enrolled in private colleges than in Israel's public universities.

The country's most established academic institutions are scrambling to hold onto their numbers, hosting open houses that look more like festivals and spending millions on marketing.

Privatization doesn't only mean more competition, but less state funds and higher tuition. Last year's 41-day student strike and this year's three-month-long lecturers' strike are expressions of the pressures faced by academic institutions. But they also send many potential students in search of other options.