JERUSALEM, June 27 (Xinhua) -- Senior Israeli academics are urging the government not to grant university status to an state college located in a city in the West Bank.
The Academic Center in Ariel has been seeking to upgrade its ranking to a university for years. The center, established three decades ago, has 12,500 students, including Israeli Arabs and Palestinians.
On July 15, the Ministry of Education's Council of Higher Education will vote on the issue, which includes, inter alia, providing more government funding.
"There is no need for another research university," the university heads wrote to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a letter.
"Establishing another research university would inflict critical damage upon the Israeli higher education system," the letter read.
However, Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar favors the upgrade, spokesman Lital Apter-Yotzer said Wednesday, noting that "As long as it meets academic requirements and doesn't take away existing funds from the country's other universities."
In a statement, the center said "the campus has reached and even surpassed all the requirements it needs to become a university. We hope that the decision will be based on academic criteria alone and not any other external considerations."
Crucial coalition partner, the Yisrael Beiteinu party, in 2009 threatened to bolt the government if the status upgrade is not granted.
Meanwhile, Prof. Daniel Zajfman, head of the prestigious Weizmann Science Institute, told the Ma'ariv Daily that his center will not cooperate with the Ariel school, if it is granted a university status.
"There is no place for political debate here," Zafjman said. " Is there any need for another university in Israel? This question hasn't been discussed in any forum. It will be interesting to see whether the Ariel center can get an increased budget for higher education following the status upgrade."
While Zajfman stressed that his objection was not influenced by any political agenda, Hebrew University President Menahem ben- Sasson offered a political reason for his objection.
"It is a strategic threat to the state. We are putting the next Nobel Prize in danger", he told Ma'ariv.
Ariel, a mostly secular city of 18,000 residents, is a source of conflict within Israeli society.
While Israeli leaders say that Ariel will stay under Israeli sovereignty in any future peace accord, opponents say it is still a settlement.
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