BGU program teaches students whose parents lacked higher education

It is well known that most university students around the world are the children of men and women who had a higher education. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) is trying to change this.

“A university degree is the best way to create social mobility,” said BGU president Prof. Daniel Chamowitz. “It’s our obligation to make higher education accessible to everyone in society, while maintaining standards that are conducive to academic excellence.”

In collaboration with the Joseph and Caroline Gruss Life Monument Fund, BGU has announced a new program called First for a Degree.

The program, whose registration is open now and will remain so until the end of August, is meant for 40 students per year, neither of whose parents have university degrees, who either served in the IDF (within five years of discharge) or did national service, are residents of the geographic/societal periphery (with preference for Negev residents) and who are interested in registering for undergraduate degrees in humanities, social sciences, management, or nursing.

Program accessibility 

The socioeconomic status of the applicants will also be considered. Those who are accepted will receive a full three-year scholarship and will be supported personally, socially, and academically by the office of the dean of students.

Admittance standards will be adjusted to include those with lower psychometric exam results (sometimes even 100 points lower), giving them up to 17 additional points on the quantitative portion. These benefits are over and above existing university programs that replace the psychometric exam with matriculation exam scores.