From the Liveblog of
Sunday, March 17, 2024
Universities against proposed law granting automatic pass grades to some reserve soldiers
Gavriel Fiske is a reporter at The Times of Israel
The heads of Israel’s leading universities send a letter to the Knesset Education Committee, urging them to change the wording of a proposed law intended to help reservists returning to their studies because, they say, it violates the universities’ academic independence.
According to the proposed law, universities would be obliged to grant a certain number of passing grades on exams and courses, as well as a stipulated number of automatic academic credits, to returning reserve soldiers. The specific benefits, which also include financial grants, depend on the duration and type of reserve duty, with more benefits going to those who served the longest in combat units.
The law, which has passed its first reading in the education committee, is to be debated again on Tuesday.
If enacted as is, the law “would trample on the authority of higher education institutions… the meaning of its passage would be that the Knesset, and not the universities, would determine what a student needs to study in order to receive an academic degree,” the Association of University Heads says in the letter.
“Even if many of the organizations and Knesset members who support the law’s enactment are motivated by a sincere concern for the reservist’s future, the legislation will achieve the opposite. If the law is passed, every student who receives an academic degree granted by the Knesset’s blessing, without meeting the academic standards determined by universities, will find themselves at a disadvantage,” the letter stresses.
The proposal is “a violation of autonomy” for Israel’s universities that could cause “fatal damage to the system’s quality…Therefore, we declare that research universities will continue to operate independently, responsibly,” the university heads write, indicating that even if such a law is passed, they will not comply.
As the university heads point out in their letter, the institutions have all set up various initiatives designed to help returning student-soldiers, including grants, personal tutoring, mental health support, eased exam schedules and more. These measures have been implemented independently, often by drawing on alumni networks for fundraising.
