Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Arabs, Druze, and Circassians^[1]are indigenous groups to the land of Israel, comprising approximately 20% of the population. These three groups enjoy significant educational and cultural autonomy, yet suffer from many socio-economic disparities. In higher education, individuals from each of these populations are enrolling and attaining degrees at all levels at higher rates than ever before. However, they are still under- represented at all levels. Moreover, among undergraduates, Arab students, like many disadvantaged groups, are over-represented in many practical fields of study such as pharmaceutical studies, nursing, dental studies, optometry and teaching, and are under-represented in high-earning professions such as industrial engineering, marketing, business and management. Arab students also tend to require more time to attain degrees than their Jewish peers, and their dropout rate id higher.

These disparities are related to the existing socio-economic disparities, including lower education of parents, and lower employment and income rates. Moreover, some characteristics of the Arab population and its education system pose considerable barriers to their full participation in the higher education system. Among them, are the weakness of the Arab-speaking elementary and secondary school system, resulting in lower achievements of their graduates; fewer higher education role models; lack of prior formal Hebrew learning experiences (while studies in higher education institutions are in Hebrew); and gaps in personal, social and professional skills and experience of the Arab youth entering higher education, compared with their Jewish peers.  While the institutions and departments are meant to cater to all students, in fact they are far more oriented to the experience of the typical Jewish-Israeli student.

In an attempt to reduce barriers and increase equality in access, during the  2010/11 school year, the Planning and Budgeting Committee (PBC) of the Council for Higher Education (CHE) launched a multi-year plan to increase participation for Arabs, Druze and Circassians. Many institutions already realized the need for intervention, and applied local institutional programs that sought to impact access patterns. The multi-year plan grounded such initiatives for the first time in a comprehensive framework with sufficient on-going public budgeting, making it a one of the largest national efforts to actively promote inclusive participation of a specific population group.

In the presentation, I will demonstrate the different incentives for this policy, including criticism by the OECD as to the high poverty and social inequality rates in Israel and the need to meet international economic development standards. I will briefly review the policy principles and activities, and deal with the challenge of disseminating a national policy in various contexts of institutions and sub-populations. Finally, I will bring findings from the first stage of our multi-method evaluation study of the national program, with special attention to issues in program implementation and results for students.