Israeli academics fight 'racist' university test

Israeli academics fight 'racist' university test

Chris McGreal in Jerusalem
Monday December 1, 2003
The Guardian

Israeli academics are threatening to call for an international boycott of their own university heads if admission tests alleged to have curbed the number of Arab students are reintroduced.

The heads of the country's five universities last week announced that they would bring back controversial psychometric testing that favours middle-class Jewish students.......

......The psychometric tests were dropped in the hope of benefiting poorer Jews whose families originate from the Middle East. They lost out in tests skewed in favour of wealthier Jews of European origin.

But the main beneficiaries were Arab Israelis poorly versed in test subjects such as Jewish history and Hebrew literature. At Tel Aviv university the number of Arabs studying medicine rose sixfold......

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1096761,00.html

Thanks