The writer is a senior fellow at PorVam Kehalat, professor of law at Netanya College
Not long ago I served as president of a large academic college. However, instead of engaging in academic development and excellence in teaching and research, I was required to devote at least one day a week to matters related to the supervision of the Higher Education Council (HEC), the regulator for higher education in Israel. Many institutions to submit reportsto fill out various forms and comply with the various tasks and instructions of the MLA concerning almost all areas of activity of the academic institution they head. A central goal of higher education in Israel is to remove the regulatory barriers and unnecessary bureaucracy that hinder the development of universities and colleges.
Wide involvement
The MLA’s activity is focused on examining the academic level of the institution, especially at the stage of granting the permit, recognition and certification to award a recognized degree. Although section 15 of the Higher Education Law states that “a recognized institution is free to manage its academic and administrative affairs, within the framework of its budget, as it sees fit” but this is not This is the case in practice. Even after a higher education institution has been recognized by the MLA and demonstrated compliance with all requirements, the MLA’s involvement in what is happening in non-budgeted institutions is very broad and concerns all areas of the institution’s activity, both at the academic level and at the administrative and corporate levels. There are a series of instructions from the MLA Institutions that are not public universities, including academic, corporate and administrative guidelines that actually bind them to a very specific model, without allowing them flexibility, freedom of action and the adoption of other models that are accepted in the world. This significantly harms the independence of each academic institution to manage its affairs in its own way. It is difficult to justify such a broad level of involvement of the regulator, especially when it comes to institutions that are not budgeted by the state. Such an extensive scope of the regulator’s involvement is unique to Israel, and is not accepted in the leading countries in the field of higher education surveyed in the comparative study I conducted, the USA, England, Canada, Germany, France, Japan and Singapore.
In my opinion, the MLA does not have the authority to determine a single management model for institutions, especially the non-budgeted ones, and it should not harm institutional independence, other than establishing principles regarding the obligation to associate in a way that guarantees academic freedom and institutional independence. There are different models in Israel and around the world that guarantee an adequate academic level. Obviously Even that the MLA is authorized to intervene when there is a violation of the appropriate academic level, when the institution is not conducted according to evidence management norms and when there is a misuse of public funds for non-academic purposes. However, regulatory barriers should not be imposed beyond what is required and accepted in leading countries in the field of higher education. A proper regulatory policy should be learned from them.
First, the supervision of the MLA on higher education institutions after they have been legally recognized should be greatly reduced and their institutional independence should not be harmed except in extremely exceptional cases.
Second, the MLA will issue recommended guidelines in both academic matters and corporate and administrative matters to recognized institutions, guidelines of a general nature that do not harm institutional autonomy. The English model should be adopted which allows institutions to reject the recommendations or some of them and explain why they do so.
allow flexibility
Another thing that should be learned from other countries is that no restrictions should be imposed on the corporate conduct of an institution that is not budgeted, including the composition of the board of trustees and the number of its members, and the term of office of the president of the institution, and he should be allowed maximum flexibility in these matters, as is customary in most countries, unless there is a real fear of harming independence the institution, for conflict of interest and the like.
The MLA should act to strengthen the higher education institutions and promote academic excellence in them, to remove barriers and unnecessary bureaucracy and to increase healthy competition in the higher education market in Israel.