BGU | PRESIDENT'S REPORT 2026

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BEN-GURION UNIVERSITY OF THE NEGEV

second cohort of Arab graduate students. The first round supports master’s students in environmental studies and environmental leadership development. The second provides doctoral fellowships for Arab students in STEM fields. COURSEWARE COMBATTING RACISM The Office is currently developing an online learning module aimed at preventing and raising awareness of racism in academic space. In addition, in the spring semester we launched the Outside the Frame program, using the Photovoice methodology to enable students to articulate personal experiences and engage with questions of belonging, exclusion, and visibility on campus.

Students from the Shared Lives Ambassadors Program on a retreat. Photo: Galit Yahya

2,097 ARABS FROM NORTH *including Druze

This year, particular emphasis was placed on outreach to high schools, based on the understanding that limited exposure to academic role models in such communities contributes to reduced self-confidence, lower academic aspirations, and perceptions of higher education as unattainable. In this context, the Yahad L’Academia (Together to Academia) mentorship program entered its second year, expanding from 10 to 15 mentoring pairs of outstanding Ethiopian female high school students. The program is supported by funding from the Beer-Sheva Municipality and the Perach national program. One of the primary barriers to successful academic integration is Hebrew, which is taught as a second language in the Bedouin education system. The Hebrew Key to Success initiative, which trains Jewish university students to teach spoken Hebrew in Bedouin high schools, ran for its third consecutive year. The program currently operates in two localities, the towns of Hura and Kuseife, reaching approximately 500 pupils. In recognition of the program’s success, the Office was awarded a major tender of approximately NIS 2.5 million through a national initiative led by the Ministry of Education, to lead the academization of spoken Hebrew instruction in Bedouin high schools in partnership with local authorities and philanthropic organizations. This grant supported the development of a training program for Bedouin teachers of Hebrew, now recognized as an official matriculation subject. The Office received grants from Yad Hanadiv and the Neubauer Family Foundation to recruit and support a

625 BEDOUINS 136 NEW IMMIGRANTS *up to 5 years in Israel 116 ETHIOPIAN DESCENT 83 ULTRA-ORTHODOX *Graduates of ultra-Orthodox schooling

TOTAL NUMBER OF STUDENTS – 19,936 (2025-26 academic year)