University of Haifa announces eased admissions and scholarships for IDF reservists

For students starting next year, the University of Haifa will offer streamlined admissions and extra financial aid for IDF reserve soldiers, security personnel and civilians directly affected by the Israel-Hamas war, the university announces.

The special admissions route will include fast-track acceptance to certain programs without the usual requirement of psychometric testing. The measures also include a scholarship of $2,000 for qualified students.

For some tracks, completion of required core classes will be included in the first year of study after admission, instead of being a requirement for admission itself. This policy would enable certain students to skip a previously necessary but uncredited “preparatory” semester or year.

“This is our opportunity at the University of Haifa to thank the men and women of the reserve forces, who left everything and went out to defend the country… and let us now join them and guarantee them a way that will enable them to enter the university in the smoothest way possible,” says University of Haifa president Prof. Ron Rubin, in the statement.

The Israel-Hamas has seen an unprecedented call-up of IDF reserve forces since October 7. Many thousands of these soldiers had been enrolled in university studies and have since been released.

All the major universities have announced various aid packages designed to aid the student-soldiers in their return to the programs in which they had been enrolled in. The University of Haifa noted in its announcement that the streamlined admissions for new student reservists for next year was a “unique and first of its kind track.”