University heads float academic assistance plan for students serving in reserves

Israel’s institutes of higher education will offer an updated plan for the upcoming academic year to assist students who have served, or will still be serving, in reserve duty in the Israel Defense Forces, the Association of University Heads announced.

The outline plan, released on Monday, is expected to affect “tens of thousands of reserve service students in all public higher education institutions in the State of Israel” in the expectation that “the call for extended reserve service will continue in the coming school year,” the notice said.

The new plan is based on experience gained during the 2023-2024 academic year, and “combines a response to the challenges faced by students and their families with the need to preserve the quality of higher education,” the association said.

“We are proud” to prioritize the “well-being and academic success” of students serving in the reserves, the statement said. “We call on the government to make available to students the necessary resources to ensure the successful continuation of studies for all reserve servicemen and their families.”

The new academic year is set to officially begin on November 3, after the Jewish High Holiday season, although some universities are to hold orientations and events the week before.

Last year, the Israel-Hamas war began with the shock October 7 Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel, in which terrorists killed some 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 back to Gaza. The resulting war and massive call-up of reserve IDF forces caused chaos in universities, where the new academic year had been set to begin on October 15.

With thousands of students and staff members suddenly absent, the beginning of the first semester was delayed several times as the war progressed and institutions scrambled to respond.

Eventually, an academic year of shortened semesters was implemented, with universities and other institutions creating individual plans for the absent soldiers, which included monetary grants, delayed exams, tutoring programs and other forms of assistance.

The outline was presented with the intention that institutions of higher learning will manage the issue “uniformly, in a different way than last year,” the Association of University Heads confirmed to The Times of Israel.

However, a Hebrew University of Jerusalem official said that the university was formulating its own version of the document, to be presented “in a week or two,” and that it was expected that other universities would follow suit.

The outline presented by the Association of University Heads gives conditions for academic assistance for students who serve in the reserves or for students with children under 13 whose spouses serve in the reserves. Also eligible are those who were wounded in the fighting, victims of October 7, and those whose family members were wounded, killed or abducted.

For those eligible, the assistance includes flexible exam periods and alternative methods for completing in-class and laboratory requirements; options for “pass/fail” grading for a certain number of classes; elimination in certain cases of non-required courses; easier procedures for transferring credits between institutions; and granting of academic credits for time spent in IDF duty in specific instances.

The outline gives leeway to individual institutions and teachers, especially in regards to how absent students are to make up assignments, lectures and exams. The document makes no mention of scholarships or grants for reserve soldier-students, which individual institutions implemented at various points during the last academic year.

Eligibility for different aspects of the assistance program is to be determined by individual institutions on a case-by-case basis, and depends on the amount of time students have served during the academic year.