| Tel-Hai College | |
| Students: | 4,500 |
| Website: | http://english.telhai.ac.il/ |
Tel-Hai College was a college located in Tel Hai in northern Israel, near Kibbutz Kfar Giladi and north of Kiryat Shmona.
The college offers academic and continuing education programs for approximately 4,500 students, 70 percent of whom come from outside the Galilee. Minorities comprise about 10 percent of the student body. The college offers degrees in life sciences, social sciences, computer science, and the humanities.
The college sees itself as "an agent of social and economic development in the highly strategic Upper Galilee region." Because of its location at the country's farthest northern border, Tel Hai's mandate extends beyond the area of education to include opportunities for individual and community development and closing social and economic rifts.
Many biology science professors who teach at Tel Hai have research groups at MIGAL where many students also develop their bachelor or master projects.
On 22 May 2024, amidst the aggression of the Lebanese Terrorist movement Hezbollah against northern municipalities during the Israeli defensive operations ongoing Hamas-Israel War, the Israeli Minister of Education Yoav Kisch announced that Tel-Hai Academic College would thereafter become the University of Kiryat Shmona in the Galilee.[1] [2] The prospects of this coming to fruition are in question, given the College had been evacuated[3] [4] in connection with Israel's war against Hezbollah and Hamas. The University's Knowledge Center has also conducted a study indicating that upwards of 40 percent of evacuated inhabitants may not return to the north (where the University is located) even if the State of Israel wins the war.[5]
In 1995, Tel Hai College opened the Center for Learning Disabled Students, the first of its kind in Israel. The center enables students with learning disabilities to thrive and excel in a competitive academic environment and realize their individual potential. The center caters to students with dyslexia (difficulties in organizing and processing written materials), dysgraphia (difficulty with written expression), foreign language learning and many other types of learning disorders. Sophisticated diagnostic tests are used to pinpoint areas of difficulty, so that maximum time and energy can be spent on learning how to overcome them.