Arabs comprised 10.3% of all undergraduate recipients aged 18-29 in 2011/12, although 22.8% of Israelis in that age group were from the sector. Furthermore, the average age of Arabs receiving undergraduate degrees was 2.8 years less than their counterparts from the Jewish sector – 23.7 compared to 26.7. These are some of the finding of “Arabs in Higher Education in Israel – Recipients of a First Degree,” a report the Central Bureau of Statistics released on Wednesday. A total of 3,606 Arabs – 2,613 Muslims, 627 Christians and 366 Druse – received undergraduate degrees in 2011/12. Out of the 3,606 degree recipients, 2,649, about 73.5%, were women. Some 49% of Arabs getting undergraduate degrees completed their studies at universities, while 28.6% received degrees from academic colleges for education and 20.9% from academic colleges. During this same year, 11.2% of recipients of undergraduate degrees from universities were Arabs, compared to 4.5% at the Open University, 5.1% at academic colleges, and 30.7% at academic colleges for education. Many Arab students pursued degrees in the fields of education and teacher training (30%), paramedical fields (26.5%), regional languages and literature (17.4%) and the humanities (15.5%). In contrast Arab students least pursued the fields of business and management (3.4%), arts and applied arts (2.9%) and agriculture (2%). Furthermore, the proportion of undergraduate Arab students was highest in the fields of Arabic language and literature (64.4%), medical laboratory sciences (51.5%), pharmacology (47.2%), Hebrew language (44.2%), nursing care (35.3%), statistics (34.5%) and Hebrew literature (33.9%).
