Harvard, UCLA to help build campus in Rahat
President recruiting leading professors to teach in the first Bedouin-oriented university
Israel’s largest recognized Bedouin town will soon be home to the country’s first Bedouin-oriented university, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Sunday.
The school, to be built in the northern Negev town of Rahat, will import lecturers from Harvard and UCLA. Leading teachers from both institutions have told President Shimon Peres they would contribute to the initiative.
The campus is being touted as a way of closing the social and economic gaps between the Bedouin and the rest of the Israeli population. Peres believes that enabling the 60,000 Bedouin of Rahat easier access to higher education will help bridge the gap between them and the rest of the country.
Beersheba’s Ben-Gurion University will be in charge of the new project, and will be building a satellite campus — similar to the one it has in Eilat.
According to the report, Manuel Trajtenberg, head of the Israel Council for Higher Education, told Peres he would help promote the project.