After the “Lost Decade” – Where is Higher Education in Israel Headed?

This is expressed, amongst other things, in recommendations for changes through the Economic Arrangements Law. For this reason, this paper refers to this as the “lost decade.” The first part of the paper describes the characteristics of the decade; the second half discusses the professional committee’s work that recommended corrections and/or improvements required by the system. The third part deals with the work plan of the Planning and Budget Committee 2010-2016, which is focusing primarily on correcting the complications of the past decade in order to renew and revitalize the academic system. The final portion of the paper examines the directions that are missing in the work plan as well as the overall renewal of accessibility policies, the role of higher education as a response to Life Long Learning, formation of a new attitude of institutional responsibility for quality, alongside releasing the bureaucratic “bottle neck” for approving academic programs, and the need for academic policy to insure high quality candidates for teacher training programs. This section of the paper also proposes a new theoretical and practical structure similar to the levels of development in other educational system around the world.