ABSTRACT

This chapter presents an overview of changes in Israel's government-university relations with an emphasis and analyzes the effects of these changes. The history of government-university relations has always been vexatious, witnessing times of harmonious cooperation and periods of contentious confrontations. In 1972 the minister of education and culture appointed the Shalon Committee to examine alternative models of university finance. From the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s the universities in Israel expanded parallel to the increased demand for higher education. Two small elite institutions of higher education and one research institute were in existence before the proclamation of the state of Israel in 1948. In 1958 the Council for Higher Education (CHE) was established to serve as "the state institution for matters of higher education in the State". In 1974 the CHE adopted the Shalon report and appointed the first Planning and Grants Committee as a buffer between the Ministry of Education and Culture, the Ministry of Finance, and the universities.