Any Home a Campus

119 Pages·2007·5.32 MB·English

.4411fti
III
DOCUMENT RESUME
ED 2551 107
HE 018 038
AUTHOR
Halperin, Samuel
TITLE
Any Home a Campus: Everyman's University
of
Israel.
INSTITUTION
Institute for Educational
Leadership, Washington,
D.C.; Jerusalem Center for Public
Affairs, Inc.
(Israel).
SPONS AGENCY
Ford Foundation, New York,
N.Y.
PUB DATE
84
NOTE
119p.
AVAILABLE FROM
Institute for Educational
Leadership, Inc., 1001
Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite
310, Washington, DC
20036 ($9.95, paper
copy; $14.95, hard copy).
PUB TYPE
Reports - Descriptive (141)
EDRS PRICE
MF01/PC05 Plus Postage.
DESCRIPTORS
Budgets; College Role; College
Students;
Disadvantaged; *Distance Education;
Educational
Objectives; *Foreign Countries;
Governance; Higher
Education; *Nontraditional
Students; *Open
Universities; Teacher Education
IDENTIFIERS
*Everymans University (Israel)
ABSTRACT
Information is provided
on the goals of Israel's
Everyman's University (EU) and its
students, curricula and stn'
modes, extra-academic
programs, new directions,
governance, and
budget. Introductory materials include
a country profile, an overview
61,,pigher education in Israel,
information on distance
education, the
opeir-uni-versity, and the
establishment and early
years of EU. EU
goals include serving the
disadvantaged, training teachers,
and
offering second chances to
persons unable to benefit from regular
study programs. EU also
promotes scientific research and
the
development of study material and
innovative methods. Over 90
percent
of EU students are enrolled in
formal academic offerings leading
to a
degree. Each course typically has
a text with 12 study units, along
with computer-marked and
tutor-marked assignments. About
45 EU
courses have 6-12 television
programs, and about 6 hours per week of
radio transmissions enrich
course offerings, An extensive lending
service of audiovisual aids is
also provided. A
summary of EU's
accomplishments in the first decade
and recommendations and questions
for policymakers are provided
for Israeli leaders,
as well as Third
World countries interested in
adapting distance education
or, open
learning methodologies to national
needs. A 37-item bibliogrlAphy
concludes the document. (sW)
***********************************************************************
Reproductions supplied by EDRS
are the best that can he made
from the original document.
***********************************************************************
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a
Any Home
Campus:
Everyman's University of
Israel
Samuel Halperin
Institute for Educational Leadership, Inc.
and
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Inc
a
ABOUT THE
AUTHOR
Samuel Halperin has
combined careers in
academia. the U.S, federal
govern-
Mein, and leadership
development to become
a respected commentator
on
policymaking for education.
After earning his Ph.D.
in political science.
he taught in several
universities
and joined the professional
staffs of the U.S.
Congress flotbe and
Senate
committees on education.
His later work
as Assistant U.S. Commissioner
of
Education for Legislation
and Congressional
Relations 1 1965 -66)
and Deputy
Assistant Secretary for
Legislation. Department
of Health, Education
and
Welfare (1966-69)
won two Superior Service
awards and the Distinguished
Service Award.
Since 1969. Halperin
-
has created and directed
several proless:onal
develop-
meat programs fir. American
educational policymakers
conducted under the
auspices of the Institute
for Educational Leadership,
of which he
was director
(1974-81) and first president
(1980-81).
Dr. Halperin has been
a guest lecturer at leading
universities around the
country and has published
over 80 articles and reviews
in professional,
educational, and political
journals. books, encyclopedia
and compendia. He
has ako served
on the U.S. Peace Corps
Advisory Council and the
Secretary
of the Navy's Advisory
Hoard on Education
and Training and been
a Visiting
Fellow of the Jerusalem
Center tOr Public Affairs.
Some of the Dr. lialperin's
other studies include:
The Political world of
American Zionism: A
UniverNity in the Web of
ilditis: A Guide /Or
the
Powerlessand The
Who Don't Knog Their
()on
Amer:
Federalism at the
Crossroads; Improving
I ed:). Pspectis
Educational Polleymaking
on Fed-
eral Educational
Policy Ied.
Copyright c' 1984 The
Institute for Educational
Leadership. Inc.
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United
States of America.
For further inliirmation:
The Institute for
Educational Leadership,
Inc.
I(X)1 Connecticut
Avenue.
N.W.
Suite 310
Washington, D.C. 2(X)36
Published under
a grant from the Ford Foundation.
Contents
Foreword and
Acknowledgments
Chapter
1.
Israel: A Country Profile
1
Chapter
2,
Higher Education in Israel:
An Overview
9
Chapter
3.
Distance Education and the
Open University
21
.
.
Chapter 4.
EU: Establishment and
Early Years
27
Chapter 5.
The Students
39
Chapter
O.
The EU System of Studies
51
Chapter 7.
The Curriculum
69
Chapter
8.
Extra-Academic Programs
73
Chaptcr 9.
New Directions
81
Chapter
10.
University Governance and
the EU Personnel
Team
85
Chapter 11.
The University Budget
93
Chapter 12.
Accomplishments. Recommendations.
Questions
for Policvniakers
97
Bibliography
109
"WHERE THERE IS NO VISION, THE PEOPLE
PERISH."
Proverbs 29:18
This study is dedicated to the very large vision of
Yigal Alton and the Rothschild Foundation.
6
4
Foreword and
Acknowledgments
The worldwide explosion
of higher learning and the incredible growth of
new techndfogiea and methodologies to
promote that learning provide the
VP*
immediate context for this study. Everyman's
University is an Israeli adven-
ture in educational innovation for those who would
make of their home
a
university campus. Its story is worth telling
in its own right and more
so as an
aid to educators and policymakers worldwide
who strive to smash the barriers
to educational opportunity and excellence.
When this study was commissioned in
the summer of 1982 there existed
no
published English language
surveys of Everyman's University beyond brief
synopses, mostly concerned with its founding.
Since then. two excellent
treatments of the University's early
years have appeared in print, one by David
Seligman and the other by Arthur S.
Melmed and three associates. While
benefitting greatly from these works. I
have updated them and
gone beyond
published materials in English
4, utilize unpublished documentation and
Hebrew-language publications, supplemented
by a variety of interviews in
1983 with administrators, staff and
students of Everyman's University and
other Israeli educational institutions.
A word is in order about how
to read and use this study: Many readers
are
likely to have specialized interests, for
example. distance educatiAn generally
or Israeli higher education in particular. Moreover,
some readers will come to
this study with a real deal of knowledge
about Israeli society while others
4
will have very link'. A similar observation
may be made about the vast and
mushrooming literature of distance learning
4nd DTUSdistance teaching
universities. Faced with this problem,
I have concluded that relatively brief
overview chapters on both Israel and
distance education are unavoidable
no
matter how elusive are ultimate syntheses of
either Knowledgeable readers
are, accordingly, advised to skip entire chapters and
ro focus on less well-
known material. In any
case, this study is addressed neither to Israelis
nor to
distance education researchers alone
but primarily to educators and Ix+
icymakers in Third World countries who
may wish to know how one small
nation went about adapting distance education methodolopd It; its own na-
tional needs and circumstances.
Harold Howe II was inditiietly responsible for this effort when he inquired
of me as to the progress of the institution whose creation he had endorsed a
decade earlier. Drs. Gladys Chang Hardy, Judy Barsaloueand Edward Meade
of the Ford Foundation each encouraged this inquiry while the Foundation
made available the necessary rands. Drs. Daniel Elazar. President of the
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, and Michael Usdan. President of the
Institute for Educational Leadership. each provided a most congenial home
and support services at different ph.:ses of the project.
And no objects of study could have been more gracious and helpful than the
leadership and staff of Evei yman's University. Particular thanks are due. to
my
President Avraham Gintbi.rg and especially to Dr. Avshalom Shohat,
unfailing guide and mentor on this voyage to a culture and an 'educational
methodology so different than the ones in which I grew up,
Peter P. Nluirhead, Arlene Horowitz (Clearinghouse on Development Com-
munications). Arthur Melmed. liana Nitian and Avshalom Shohat read all or
portions of the manuscript, expertly typed by John Rankin and Louise Clarke.
and made numerous helpful suggestions. Ellison Platt of Britain's Open
University provided useful data to set the Israeli experience in international
context. To all of these fine friends, my sincere thanks.
My admiration for what has been accomplished at Everyman's University is
I can only hope that
I have
apparent in many points in this manuscript.
captured accurately the essential workings of the University and that any
errors of fact or interpretation which have crept into the writing ate over-
shadowed by the magnificent spirit, the accomplishments and large promise
the University. In any case, none of the persons whose help I have publicly
acknowledged should be held responsible for failings on my part.
VI
yr
S
Chapter 1
Israel: A
Country Profile
rsrael is small in geographic
size. but large in the complexity
of its cultural,
educational. economic. political,
demographic and social lite.
No adequate
understanding of the role of
Everyman's University
can be obtained without
some attention to that web of complexity.
'Hence. some' basic facts about
the
country:
Area and Distance
Israel is comprised of 21.401
square knottiness of land and 445
square
kilometers of water
area. together amininting to less
than 8.5(X) square
milesroktghly the size of
Massachusetts. North to South,
Israel is 320 miles
long. while its East-West
width varies from
a mere nine to 70 miles. Driving
time among its three largest
cities is: Haifa-Tel Aviii4 under
two hours: Tel
Aviv-Jerusalem, under
one hour.
Population
Total population in 1982
was 4.063,600 of whom 3,:i73 20(1
(83%) were
Jews and 690.400 (17%)
non-Jews. Of the non-Jewish. mostly
Arab, popula-
tion. 76.9% were Moslem.
13.6% Christian. 9.51W
Druze and others. An
Additional 1,1 million Arabs live
in the Administered Territories
occupied by
Israel in the Six-Day
War of 1967 (Judea. Samaria.
Gaza or "The West
'Sank"). As the result of
population transfers. assimilation
and declining births
in the Diaspora. the
Jews of Israel constitute 26%
of world Jewry,
up from
20% in 1970. and could
become a majority early in
the next' century.
Immigration
Israel's Jewish population numbered
650,000 when the state
was created in
194$, mostly immigrants
or children of immigrants. Since then.
Israel has
I-
Israel
Prrlile
2
half from Asia and North
absorbed 1.7 million Jewish newcoiners, over,
population derives
about 52% 01 the Jewish
Affican countries. Thus. today.
India) while
East" (stretching from Morocco to
from the "communities of the
Argentina
"the West." (from Canada and
about 48% come from Europe and
had been born in
By 1982. 58.1% of the population
to Russia and Australia).
and Africa.
the Americas: 18.6.4 in Asia
Israel. 23.3% born in Europe and
of 1970
down sharply from the 36.750
Immigration totaled 13,723 in 1982.
170.215 of 1950. when Jews were being
(mostly from the USSR) and the
communities and from the remnants of post-
"ingathered" from the Eastern
Holocaust European Jewry.
Urbanization
while one third live in the greater
Tel
87% of all Israelis are urban dwellers
residents.
largest city with some 425.(X)0
Aviv area. Jerusalem is now Israel's
wide
population lives in the tenmile
Altogether, about two-thirds of the
The
Gaza (about 13',l of total land area.)
coastal strip between Lebanon and
only 7'4 of
of Israel's land area, is home to
arid Negev. with about two-thirds
and cooperative villages ikibbutlim
the population. Agricultural collectives
and 154.1)(x
of the total population ill o.(i(X)
and moshavini) comprise 6.6'4
persons. respectively).
Governmental Structure
Prime
with strong powers vested in a
Israel has a parliamentary system
maintain a majority in the 120-Member
Minister and a Cabinet as long as they
Elections to the Knesset (by universal
unicameral legislature. the Knesset.
the last were held on .Juty 23.
suffrage) are slated at least every four years;
1984.
fac-
parties and single-Member Knesset
Currently. there are 15 political
1948 have been coalitions. These were
tions. All l'raeli governments since
Likud, a
Labor parties and, since then. by
led., until 1977. by a bloc of
union
reject Labor's socialist and trade
coalition of diverse factions which
"hawkish" views on foreign
orientation and which generally take more
considered particularly contentious. reflect-
policy. Party politics in Israel are
this
viewpoints on many issues. As of
ing the sharp diversity of Israeli
been
coalition government has not yet
writing, the composition of Israel's next
derided'.
Cultural Diversity
well over 1(X) countries speaking some
Israel's population can be traced to
of national
still flourish and are the objects
90 languages. Diverse cultures
and scholarly attention.
support and both political
10