Herzliya IDC will award a doctorate degree in law

The Council for Higher Education approved for the first time the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center to award a doctorate degree. The certificate makes the academic institution the first private university in Israel. A committee of the Council for Higher Education will enable the Interdisciplinary Center to grant a PhD in law.
Education Minister Naftali Bennett, who also serves as chairman of the Council for Higher Education, said: "Today we are making history - for the first time, we will allow the opening of a doctoral program in a private college in Israel".
According to Bennett, after a long period of ten years in which there were many delays, a good decision was made to diversify academic research and broaden the possibilities of education for the students. The opening of the research world to additional institutions will further strengthen research at the universities, encourage brilliant and excellent minds to pursue advanced degrees, and raise the quality of academic research in the State of Israel.
The move also encountered opposition from the research universities, which are afraid of damaging their prestige. The Committee of Heads of Research Universities in Israel, including the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University, Haifa University, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, the Technion and the Weizmann Institute of Science, responded strongly that instead of acting in the national interest of advancing academic research and positioning Israel as a leader in breakthrough science, Granting a doctorate to a specific college. "
The IDC Herzliya was established in 1994 by Professor Uriel Reichman and has 7,000 students. The government does not provide it with funds, and it exists only from tuition paid and private donations.