Unbridled attack on higher education

The discussion of the gradual addition of funding to institutions of higher education has recently exceeded the bounds of legitimate discourse. Finance Minister Roni Bar-On is leading the firebrand trend, giving senior faculty a rude, populist scolding and describing them as freeloaders who use fraudulent means to earn more and work less.

"They teach from zero to three hours a week," Bar-On said, based on a quote from an internal report by the Council on Higher Education that was reported in the press. The report referred to a minuscule number of extreme cases, but Bar-On got carried away and spoke of lecturers who flew abroad on private trips and billed the university. All in the name of "academic freedom," he scoffed.

Nothing is easier than inciting criticism against university teachers. They do not occupy an impressively high place in the hierarchy of desirable professions in Israel. Their salaries are less than thrilling, chances for advancement are uncertain and all universities suffer from a lack of available positions. In addition, all junior- and mid-level instructors are adjunct faculty, with neither rights nor reasonable employment conditions, and research funding is being constantly eroded.

Israel's higher education crisis is one of the most widely discussed facts of life in recent years. Most institutions of higher learning have large budget deficits and serious administrative problems. Departments and programs, particularly in the humanities, are losing students and teaching hours. In addition, the brain drain - to universities overseas as well as to rival institutions or to commercial companies in Israel - is intensifying.

The strike by senior faculty members that paralyzed studies last year ended in failure and even caused damage. The professors placed their wage demands at the center of the negotiations, neglecting the issues surrounding junior faculty members, the lack of job positions, human resources and the basic problems of Israeli higher education. Meanwhile, the Shochat Committee, which was appointed to study the state of higher education and make recommendations, completed its work and published its conclusions. Recommendations with regard to managerial shortcomings were lacking, but what there was the government pledged to accept and implement.

One recommendation was to increase state funding for universities by NIS 1.8 billion by 2013. This is the ostensible noncontroversial issue that has become the focus of a belligerent altercation between the treasury and the higher education system. Committee chairman Avraham Shochat now claims that the cabinet pawned off the recommendations to Vice Premier Haim Ramon, and since then nothing has been done. Indeed, it is inconceivable that now, when the cabinet is to implement the recommendations submitted to it by the very committee it appointed, the argument is being reopened.

The finance minister, and perhaps some of his officials, may not understand that higher education is not measured according to dogmatic economic measurements such as output and benefit versus cost. Universities indeed must adopt efficiencies, and in particular dramatic administrative changes must be made. But "academic freedom" is not an empty term. Nobel laureate Professor Aaron Ciechanover was right when he called higher education a magnificent system, creative and productive. Bar-On's unbridled attack is a damaging and unnecessary step on the way toward wiping it out.