HIT AUTHORIZED TO ADVANCE STATUS OF FACULTY

The Council for Higher Education (CHE) has provisionally approved HIT’s application to independently award the rank of Associate Professor upon deserving faculty from 5 diverse disciplines:  Mathematics, Physics, Computer Science, Engineering and Technology Management.

Upon receipt of the good news, Prof. Eduard Yakubov, President of HIT, expressed his satisfaction over this important development: "The reputation of an institution of higher education is measured by its academic excellence and the status of its academic staff.  These two factors are reflected by the number of senior professors at each institution. We at HIT currently have about 40 out of 160 tenured professors on staff. Our academic faculty is young, dynamic and possess outstanding potential to reach this coveted rank.  Most of them have achieved international recognition, including winning competitive research grants from prestigious national and international agencies. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that the Institute's appointment system be able to nurture and promote them commensurate with their proven performance as researchers and educators.
 

Until the current authorization was received, appointment to the rank of Associate Professor required not only the approval of two internal Appointment committees: Supreme and Institutional, but also confirmation by the Supreme Appointment Committee of the CHE, rendering the process long and complex.
 

HIT can now award this status independently without requiring prior CHE approval, will allow procedures to be shortened. This privilege, of course, comes with great responsibility to strictly adhere to the academic guidelines set by the CHE.
 

It also represents an enormous achievement for HIT, and demonstrates the CHE’s confidence in us as a leading academic institution. This positive step in faculty development will allow management and appointment committees to promote worthy faculty members to the professorship ranks.  I envision that within 3-4 years, the number of faculty members at HIT who are associate or full professors will increase from 25% to 33%, and will comprise more than a third of HIT’s faculty.  This augurs well for enhancement of our R&D capabilities, ultimately benefitting the State of Israel and the entire world”.

Posted: 26/11/2020