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The IVA 2005 conference The Future of the Israeli HighTech Industry: The Educational Challenges

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In 2004/05: ~ 100 retirements, ~ 10-20 hires. ... Introduce flexibility and hence competition: let tuition, salaries vary across ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: The IVA 2005 conference The Future of the Israeli HighTech Industry: The Educational Challenges


1
The IVA 2005 conferenceThe Future of the
Israeli High-Tech Industry The Educational
Challenges
  • Prof. Manuel Trajtenberg
  • The Eitan Berglas School of Economics,
  • Tel Aviv University
  • June 2005

2
Sources of Israels competitiveness in High Tech
  • Israel positioned itself as world-class player in
    High Tech (e.g. 4th in patents per capita).
  • High Tech (ICT) contributed 1/3 of growth of the
    Israeli economy during 1990-2000
  • Human Capital
  • main source of Israels comparative advantage in
    High Tech comprises entrepreneurship, ingenuity,
    daring (hutzpa),
  • but first and foremost education!

3
Necessary conditions for acquiring useful Human
Capital
  • Access to top education, from grade school to
    Ph.D., including
  • Solid base in pillars of ST math, computer
    sciences, English
  • Broad disciplinary range new ideas come from
    recombination (e.g. bio-informatics, nano,
    etc.)
  • Exposure, first-hand experience with cutting-edge
    scientific research.

4
Indeed, Israels High Tech Boom of the 1990s
  • Lead by the generation born in the 1960s
  • went to school in the 1970s, when Israeli pupils
    were on top of the international achievement
    charts,
  • attended Israeli Universities in the 1980s,
    golden era, when e.g. Israel ranked first in
    scientific publications per capita.

5
Does Israel still hold a Human Capital advantage?
  • Barely
  • Deterioration of School system, decline in
    scholastic achievements, increase in of
    ultra-orthodox in entering classes.
  • Explosion in number of college students, but deep
    cuts in budgets for Academia, decline of Research
    Universities.
  • The generation born in the 1980s Went to schools
    of poor quality in the 1990s, now entering
    declining universities not a rosy prospect

6
The Challenge from the Globalization of ST
  • Moreover, Israel faces now,
  • Global, stiff competition in RD
  • Surge of emerging economies into global RD
    arena Indias SE students 300,000 per year!
  • Israel can no longer count on comparative
    advantage in plain vanilla RD, but needs to,
  • climb up the ST ladder,
  • compete in cutting-edge ST fields
  • needs top-notch academic research

7
Focus onThe Decline of Israeli Universities
  • Quantity versus Quality, 1990 2002
  • 120 increase in number of students
  • 33 decline in expenditure per student
  • 2. Increasing gap between salaries of professors
    in Israel and in the US

Brain drain, very hard to recruit new faculty
8
Students in high education in Israel1986 - 2000
2000
1990
9
(No Transcript)
10
Relative wages of professors and of software
programmers Israel vs. US
2 2.5 times higher
66 higher
Brain drain
11
Case in point Tel Aviv University, largest in
Israel
  • Shrinking faculty from 1,400 in 2000, to 1,000
    by 2006
  • Aging faculty 50 older than 55 (in the US
    30) peak research productivity in the 40s
  • In 2004/05 100 retirements, 10-20 hires.
  • Financial crisis years of budget cuts gt
    deficit, huge actuarial debt (pensions, etc.).

12
50 older than 55
30 older than 60
13
The decline of Universities continuedworrisome
facts
  • Widespread unawareness of implications of decline
    in quality of universities for High Tech, for
    growth confusion getting degrees vs. academic
    research.
  • Government looks the other way virtually only
    policy budget cuts, further dilution of
    resources.
  • Bind the government controls both the income of
    Universities (tuition), and most of the expenses
    (salaries) no degrees of freedom!

14
An Agenda for Renewal of Israeli Academic Lead
  • To climb up the ST ladder and compete globally,
    need major shift in priorities towards academia
  • Emphasize research quality in allocating
    resources to academic institutions, e.g. increase
    budget of ISF (for competitive research grants).
  • Introduce flexibility and hence competition let
    tuition, salaries vary across fields
    institutions
  • Develop advanced research infrastructure
  • Facilitate the return of young Ph.D.s from the US
    (today bureaucratic and financial obstacles)

15
Towards a partnership between Academia and High
Tech
  • The High Tech sector (including the OCS and VCs)
    should,
  • become an advocate for the rebirth of academic
    excellence
  • forge alliances with academia in frontier
    research
  • Universities should,
  • Engage in a closer dialogue with industry to
    supply needed graduates, research infrastructure.
  • Open their doors to commercialize research
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