{"id":951,"date":"2004-03-25T18:07:08","date_gmt":"2004-03-25T18:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/presidentreport.biu.ac.il\/2025\/?p=951"},"modified":"2025-05-12T19:56:01","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T19:56:01","slug":"strategic-investment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/presidentreport.biu.ac.il\/2025\/?p=951","title":{"rendered":"Strategic Investment"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A research-based pilot for helping close gaps between first-generation students and their peers is ensuring that whatever their starting points, all Bar-Ilan students go the distance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inclusivity","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"

Diversity and Gender Equity Commission<\/h5>\n

Strategic Investment<\/h1>\n

A research-based pilot for helping close gaps between first-generation students and their peers is ensuring that whatever their starting points, all Bar-Ilan students go the distance.<\/h3>\n

Filling in the Blanks<\/h6>

Last year, when the Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences turned to the Diversity and Gender Equity Commission for help advancing its first-generation graduate students, commission coordinator Dr. Yael Bar-Tzedek was confident she knew what to do. Only a year and half into its existence, the commission\u2014which, guided by the principles of social justice and equal opportunity, promotes the success of all groups in Israeli society\u2014had already conducted extensive research on the nearly 1,000 Bar-Ilan students who are the first in their families to pursue a degree. A main takeaway from participants\u2019 in-depth interviews and questionnaires was the impact of mentorship in cultivating a sense of belonging in academia. Crucially, mentorship also plays an important role in helping students develop \u201csoft skills,\u201d or the skills in time management, long-term planning, and communication that are critical to academic performance\u2014and which first-generation students often lack, even years into their studies.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s understandable to assume that if first-generation students have completed a bachelor\u2019s degree, they\u2019ve already gained the skills that were missing when they first came to the university,\u201d explains Bar-Tzedek. \u201cWhat our study showed, however, is that absent a concerted effort, significant gaps still remain between first-generation and non-first-generation students at every degree level. That\u2019s the bad news. The great news is that, as our study also showed, the programs Bar-Ilan provides to address this gap, such as mentoring for bachelor\u2019s degree students through the Dean of Students Office, can and do make a tremendous difference.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Prof.\n

Prof. Orna Sasson-Levy<\/h5>\n\"Dr.\n
Dr. Yael Bar-Tzedek<\/h5>\n

To test Bar-Tzedek\u2019s hypothesis, the commission\u2014led by inaugural commissioner Prof. Orna Sasson-Levy of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology\u2014designed a pilot program in the life sciences faculty that matched 11 first-generation master\u2019s and doctoral students with a mentor from either academia or industry. Along with regular one-on-one consultations with their mentors, students also met once a month as a group for lectures, skills-building workshops, and open discussions. The results were overwhelming: Upon the pilot\u2019s conclusion, participants felt the program had been so helpful, they offered to act as mentors themselves to the next, scaled-up cohorts throughout Bar-Ilan faculties. Yet when the commission proposed segmenting future cohorts into still more targeted groups, the students balked, insisting that differences in gender, background, and even nationality pale in comparison to the strength of their shared first-generation experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know from our research that these students are a group unto themselves, defined first and foremost by having come from Israel\u2019s geographic and socio-economic peripheries,\u201d Bar-Tzedek says. \u201cWhat we didn\u2019t realize was just how formative their first-generation background is to their identities. We thought we were \u2018merely\u2019 helping individual students succeed in academia, and we were. But we also enabled deep and supportive friendships,\u201d she concludes. \u201cUltimately, and to our great delight, we helped advance a \u2018shared space.\u2019 These spaces, which create opportunities for connection and exposure to different experiences, cultures, and ways of thinking, are the way to create a stronger campus and<\/em> Israeli society.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Push Toward Excellence: Support for Minority Groups<\/h6>

To ensure that the full potential present in Israeli society is reflected in its student body and faculty\u2014particularly in those fields, such as the exact and life sciences, considered national priorities\u2014the Diversity and Gender Equity Commission also identified key areas where financial, technical, or psychological support can keep members of minority groups\u2014women, graduates of the Haredi educational system, students of the Arab society, and students of Ethiopian descent\u2014in academia and on a path to impact.<\/p>\n

Postdoctoral Scholarships<\/h6>

Scholarships for students who have completed their PhDs allow them to remain in academia and engage in advanced research.<\/p>

Conference Stipends<\/h6>

Stipends for flight tickets enable both Master\u2019s and doctoral students to participate in academic conferences abroad and engage in the networking that opens doors to postdoctoral opportunities.<\/p>

Diversity Representatives<\/h6>

Newly appointed diversity representatives in each of Bar-Ilan\u2019s faculties will help researchers promote academic success among minority students. They also offer these students a direct address for their academic challenges.<\/p>

Language-Editing Subsidies<\/h6>

A fixed subsidy for the editing of theses and dissertations by students whose first language is not Hebrew ensures that the language barrier need not be an obstacle to the success of their research.<\/p>

Faculty Development<\/h6>

Thanks to funding from the Rothschild Foundation, the commission partnered with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem\u2019s aChord Institute to provide Bar-Ilan faculty with evidence-based tools for advancing inclusivity.<\/p>\n