According to data published by the Israel Council for Higher Education in 2017, the number of chareidi students stood at 12,300, an increase of 60% since 2013. It also shows that 9% of the first-degree students study computer science and engineering, similar to the entire population. For example, in 2013, 93 chareidi men studied computer science and software engineering, which rose to 370 last year.

However, unlike the general public, the majority of chareidi students are women, who constitute 70% of all chareidi students, whereas in the general public, women constitute only 30%.

It should also be noted that according to the Central Bureau of Statistics, published last year, nearly a quarter of all chareidi students who began studying in 2015 did not continue for the second year of the degree, compared to 8% who did not continue among non-chareidi Jewish students.

Despite the trend, chareidi students currently constitute only 4% of the total number of students in Israel, while their share in the general population is three times – 12%.

In the past year, a five-year plan has been published that is adapted to the chareidi tzibur, which costs about NIS 1 billion, with the goal of increasing the number of chareidi students from 11,000 to 19,000 by 2022.

According to Yaffa Zilbershatz, head of the Planning and Budgeting Committee, “As part of our programs, we offer chareidi students special preparatory courses, and we encourage them to study the desired professions in the economy. It is very great to study computer science and other high-tech professions.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)