Annual College Rankings Tough on Israeli Schools

Israeli institutions of higher learning suffered a blow, prestige-wise, when the Shanghai Ranking Consultancy released its annual listing of the world’s top colleges and universities on Tuesday. The Haifa-based Technion, often referred to as Israel’s “MIT,” was the only Israeli university to survive in the top-100 – albeit barely doing so at number 93. It had place 69 on the last list. Hebrew University in Jerusalem did not fare so well and is now below the 100 mark while Tel Aviv and Ben Gurion Universities, and the Weizmann Institute of Science showed no movement. By way of comparison, on the international level, Harvard and Stanford again led the field. The new Shanghai listings is reviving an ongoing national debate in Israel regarding the state of education. Also being considered is the effect private hi-tech incubators is having on the ability of colleges and universities to hole their traditional position in the important area of commercialization of its research.