Jewish Report

18 – 25 November 2016 Education in Focus
SA JEWISH REPORT 13
BGU known for innovation and multi-disciplinary research
ANT KATZ
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU)
is located in the desert city of Be’er Sheva,
south of Jerusalem. It is ranked #18 in the
QS ranking of global universities under
50 years old and has established an international
reputation for multidisciplinary
research.
It offers a modern campus and a dynamic
student population of 20 000 from Israel
and around the world. Students go to BGU
both for academic opportunities as well
as for its famously vibrant campus atmosphere.
Beersheva has what has become one of
the world’s most thriving ecosystems of
technology, innovation and business collaboration.
BGU has managed to do this by
virtue of the city having space to grow - a
rarity in this “innovation nation”.
The BGU campus thus finds itself at the
heart of a fast-developing R&D hub, which
includes Soroka University Medical Centre
and The Advanced Technologies Park within
a one kilometre radius. This has created a
robust R&D triangle.
Imagine this scenario: A student has an
idea in class or in the lab and takes it across
the road to the Advanced Technologies Park
and joins a development incubator - and
before you know it the student is a start-up!
BGU’s says its top-notch academic programmes
educate tomorrow’s researchers
and professionals. A range of interdisciplinary
programmes, institutes and centres of
excellence, such as their Homeland Security
Institute and their ABC Robotics Initiative,
bring together researchers from different
fields to find innovative solutions to the
world’s most pressing problems.
BGU directs students through numerous
specialised tracks, such as:
• Entrepreneurship and innovation - This
track combines courses from several
academic fields as well as practical skills
and theory, providing students with
useful tools and training them in innovative
thinking and entrepreneurship.
Participants in this track, who come
from all fields of study, develop precious
career skills.
• Global health - Students get an inside
look at global health, an emerging field
that incorporates both theory and social
involvement and interweaves disciplines
such as medicine, sociology, economics,
politics and ethics. Through guided
tours of medical facilities in Israel,
students observe emerging aspects of
global health first-hand, as well as participate
in a field practicum.
• Israel studies - Israel is a modern and
progressive country, yet steeped in
tradition - a leader in technology and
entrepreneurship, yet protective of
customs and rituals. In this multidisciplinary
track, students work in
world-renowned archives, participate in
current field research, thus discovering
Israel’s dynamic society.
• Sustainable development and environment
– as a leader in environmental
studies and the sustainable use of limited
natural resources in the desert, BGU
is the ideal place to explore sustainability
and environmental management.
This track examines the challenges of
sustainable development in the Middle
East and their implications in other
parts of the world.
BGU has conferred honorary doctorates
on four South Africans: Nelson Mandela,
Nadine Gordimer, Bertram Lubner and Eric
Samson.
• For further information contact Kyra
Wainstein of SA Associates of BGU at
076-413-5185 or study@bgu.ac.il
Former President Nelson
Mandela received an honorary
doctorate from Ben-Gurion
University in 1997. Pictured
with Mandela at this occasion
are Herby Rosenberg
(chairman: SA Associates of
BGU); Prof Avishay Braverman
(then president of BGU);
and Dr Bertie Lubner (then-
President: SA Associates and
Vice Chairman of the Board of
Governors of BGU).