Who is the Cinderella of Israel's academic departments?
An article on the state of Israeli academia in 2026: two Ig Nobel wins, the Technion dropping out of the Shanghai top 100, no Israeli universities in the top 100 of British rankings, alongside achievements in entrepreneurship (Tel Aviv ranked 9th globally) and high rankings for specific departments. The rate of young academics stagnated at 46% compared to a rise in the OECD, and ERC grants plummeted.
A comprehensive article on the state of Israeli academia in 2026, combining achievements with concerning trends. It opens by noting two Israeli wins at the 2025 Ig Nobel Prizes: Prof. Bari Pinshow and Prof. Carmi Korina from Ben-Gurion University won the aviation prize for research showing that drunk bats flew slower, and Rotem Neftalovich, Daniel Neftalovich, and Frank Greenway won for research on a Teflon diet. However, the article highlights a decline in international rankings: the Technion dropped out of the Shanghai top 100, and no Israeli universities are in the top 100 of the THE and QS rankings, partly due to weaknesses in internationalization and faculty-student ratios. On the other hand, Tel Aviv University is ranked 9th globally in venture capital fundraising by PitchBook, with 1,084 entrepreneurs raising $47 billion. The Hebrew University's communications department is ranked 17th globally, and the University of Haifa's public administration department climbed to 28th. The article notes that the rate of young people with academic education stagnated at 46% over a decade, while the OECD average rose to 49%, and that Israel's ERC grants plummeted from 30 to 11 within two years, partly due to scoring changes and a covert boycott.