Jerusalem

Education

As Israel's center of scholarship and religion, Jerusalem has a highly educated population, even exceeding the relatively high national average of the nation as a whole. Approximately 36 percent of the population over the age of 15 have had over 13 years of education, and 19 percent have had more than 16 years. (Among the Jewish population, these figures rise to 45 percent and 24 percent respectively.)

Given Jerusalem's high number of large families, the city has an unusually large population of school-aged children, numbering some 160,000. Of these, 65,000 are ultra-Orthodox children whose education is overseen by a separate Ultra-Orthodox Educational Department, and 24,000 are Arabs. Education for non-Orthodox or Modern Orthodox Jews is administered by the Jerusalem Education Authority. The following combined school enrollment was recorded in 1997: kindergarten, 25,427; primary education, 64,278; high school, 42,699; Arab students at all levels, 24,272; total, 159,403.

Hebrew University, founded in 1925, is Israel's most prestigious post-secondary institution. Almost 23,000 full-time students are enrolled at its regular campuses at Mount Scopus and Giv'at Ram, its medical school at Ein Kerem, and its agricultural college at Rehovot. The university, which has 1,400 senior faculty members, is the site of nearly 40 percent of all civilian research carried out in Israel. Other colleges in Jerusalem include the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Hebrew Union College, and the Rubin Academy of Music. Al-Quds University, a national Arabic Palestinian university, is the only Arab University in Jerusalem. It was originally established in 1984 by the merger of four colleges in Jerusalem and its suburbs.