Ben Gurion Institute of Science and Technology

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GENERAL DESCRIPTION AND HISTORY

Ben Gurion Institute of Science and Technology – BGIT (מכון למדע וטכנולוגיה ע"ש בן גוריון) is a private higher education college located in Jerusalem, Israel. The institute was founded in 1991 and began with an emphasis on engineering and natural science, later expanding its activity by opening social and behavioral studies faculties. During the first decade it was operating as an “open learning” educational facility with a full English language curriculum this way attracting a large English-speaking audience, mostly assembled of young new emigrants from US and UK who experienced difficulty studying in Hebrew. Making distance education its primary objective BGIT created conditions allowing those preoccupied with job, military service or their family to attend and study toward bachelor’s degree while maintaining high standards and demanding academic achievements from the graduates.

PRESENT

In 2006, the institute has expanded its Jerusalem facilities by opening a new campus in Haifa and adding an "extended campus" for the international and non-Israeli students. The latest addition allowed international students to receive study materials and courses on Distance Learning basis via the internet. Jerusalem campus had approximately 400 students in 2006. Haifa campus started out with 130 students losing most of them in 2007. Online "extended campus" has an estimated 1200 students, mostly international.

In 2007 BGIT has acquired an unsettling reputation among some layers of international academic community following grim criticism by major European universities for actively promoting Zionist ideas among its students with a strong focus on IDF military programs. The controversy was partially extinguished, when institute's spokesman Dr David Nachem has denied accusations in a local press conference held in Jerusalem. As a result the school has lost its credibility and was temporarily suspended (May - June 2007) for internal investigation losing over 30% of its students in the process. The Haifa campus was closed but "extended campus" remained at large, attracting even greater amount of students.

OUTLOOK

BGIT is currently working on changing its main operations model to distance learning programs. This is predicted to expand its student capacity to over 80,000 in total by 2012 and reduce educational fees per credit hour by over 40%. Recent restructuring of upper management echelon and gradual redirection of BGIT's academic objectives is expected to smooth out political controversies encountered in the past and contribute to an its growth and development.