Israel's Council for Higher Education has blocked a plan for a new university in northern Israel for at least the next five years.
The university in Galilee was planned as a multi-campus institution for undergraduates and postgraduates. It was to have included five regional colleges (the Max Stern Academic College of Emek Yezreel, Tel Hai, Ort Carmiel, Emek Hayarden and the Western Galilee College), and would have been the third university in the north.
But the council decided that "over the coming five years, there is no academic or planning need to establish an additional university in Israel".
There is no connection between the decision and the security situation in the area, which stretches north of Haifa to the Lebanese border.
Shlomo Grossman, chair of the council's planning and budgeting committee, who headed the council panel that examined the idea of establishing additional universities, said there was no need for another university because the system could already absorb hundreds of doctoral students.
Professor Grossman said that the supply of doctoral students already exceeded the ability of higher education faculties to absorb them as staff members.
But Aliza Shenhar, president of Max Stern Academic College, said the "objective of the multi-campus university was to pool our resources instead of competing with each other". She added: "Collaboration between the five colleges could bring about a change in the Galilee, not only a change in academic needs but also the needs of the area."
While the council did not back the plan, it did decide to adopt a proposal to consider establishing a research institute in Upper Galilee, which will specialise in biotechnology, life and environmental sciences. Even if the research institute is approved, it will not receive funding from the council budget committee because of competing priorities.