".. if we create market universities run purely on market principles they may be of their age, but they will not be able to transcend it."
Frederico Mayer, Director General, UNESCO

MY MAIN AIM IN THIS PAGE IS TO COLLECT BACKGROUND INFORMATION ABOUT WHAT HAS HAPPENED IN OTHER COUNTRIES WHICH FACED AND FACE CHALLENGES TO THEIR UNIVERSITY SYSTEM MORE OR LESS ANALOGOUS TO THE CHALLENGES FACING ISRAELI UNIVERSITIES TODAY.
Your comments are welcome

In France:

Here are some details about a group of French researchers, who, with determination and a clear vision of the issues that really matter, were able to successfully counter a short sighted political challenge to research in French universities.

Now a series of documents about the situation in Australian universities:

I was born and grew up in Australia and benefitted greatly from fine schools and universities there. In more recent years I have sorrowfully witnessed the decline of some once excellent mathematics departments. (One disappeared entirely.) But far more is at stake than just one particular department or one particular discipline.

The article in Haaretz about the changes introduced by John Dawkins in Australian universities and their consequences.

A partial exoneration of Dawkins written by a former academic now working in non university research and high tech. (A contribution from Mr. Dawkins himself appears below.)

Here is a particularly thoughtful and eloquent analysis of the Australian and not just Australian academic predicament. Please read this one even if you read nothing else here. Hopefully you know how to ensure that we do not have to fear analogous problems.

A lecturer in the social sciences tells of severely increased financial and other burdens and difficulties for students, as well as their teachers, and the subtle ways they were imposed,..."the thin edge of the wedge".

Here are the impressions of a former Australian statistician now working in the U.S., including also a journal article with several interesting further references.

Some impressions of a lecturer in the humanities, among them the statement: "So a context arises that is conducive to the production of what I see as pretty mediocre research - which may be worse than no research."

From an Australian mathematician: .... I enclose a copy of the submission I made to the University Council a couple of years ago, about the University's strategic Plan--which I regarded as a rather supine response to the political pressures on it. But, although not directly relevant to the issues you face, this may give you an idea of how the Australian government went about 'controlling' the universities even though they remained formally autonomous. The "crossroads" submission was a submission to the government I made two years ago, in response to its "crossroads" enquiry into higher education. It touches upon some of the effects of the Dawkins "reforms"--the current government, although liberal not labour, basically holds the same views as Dawkins and Labour did at the time. In Australia, on this sort of issue, there is no difference between the "left" and the "right".

Another Australian mathematician who left to work in the U.S. gives his viewpoint.

Let us also offer Mr. Dawkins himself the right of reply. He gives his point of view in his review of the apparently very interesting book, "The Enterprise University TBA Power, Governance and Reinvention in Australia" by Simon Marginson and Mark Considine, Cambridge University, 2000.

In the U.S.A:

It is hard to imagine the U.S. government trying to impose a uniform structure on the thousands of universities there. But there is arguably a certain analogy between the challenges we now face and may soon face, with recently reported attempts in the U.S. by politicians to suppress and distort scientific knowledge and undermine scientific advisory panels. This information was obtained from the Union of Concerned Scientists. The same issue has been discussed in an article which appeared in the April 26, 2004 issue of Scientific American.

So what about Israel?

For a start, here is an article by the incomparable Elia Leibowitz which appeared in Haaretz on July 12, 2004
And here, with Prof. Ehud Keinan's permission, are the texts (in Hebrew) of his statements in the Technion Senate on 23.5.04 and 27.6.04.