Holon Institute of Technology launches UK friends group
Founded after Six Day War, Holon aims to bridge engineering brain drain gap
Jenni Frazer is a freelance journalist
Outside his role as president of the Holon Institute of Technology, Tashkent-born Professor Eduard Yakubov likes to cook.
Inside HIT, you might say that Yakubov — who emigrated to Israel from Uzbekistan in 1990 with his wife and family — is similarly applying cooking skills.
For the mathematician, who has served in various roles at HIT since 1994, is selecting ingredients at the college, to make it into a world-class contender in producing Israeli students for the next generation of developers and engineers.
“HIT was established in 1969”, Yakubov says, noting that after the 1967 Six Day War, Israel was not producing sufficient engineers. The college, sited just south of Tel Aviv, began specialising in three kinds of engineering disciplines: electrical, mechanical, and industrial.
Today HIT has about 6,000 students, and more than 20,000 graduates. Yakubov presides over an institute which has a multi-disciplinary focus, integrating science, technology, engineering, design and management, so that students are well equipped to face the challenges in Israeli society.
Additionally, the college provides opportunities for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, new immigrants, Ethiopian-Israeli students, and strictly Orthodox communities. It also prioritises support for those who serve the country, including IDF soldiers and those recovering from the challenges of service, especially in the aftermath of recent conflicts.
Today, Yakubov and his team reckon that with Israel’s brain drain, there is a shortage of about 25,000 engineers — and HIT, which closely collaborates with Israeli hi-tech industry, aims to tackle that gap.
Now Holon is launching overseas help to back its work — and among the first support groups will be HIT Trust UK, which will provide scholarships, grants, and bursaries to empower students from marginalised communities and those who have served in the IDF. It will also facilitate international collaborations, research funding, and innovative projects, further embedding HIT as a global player in academic excellence.
The new group will be fronted in Britain by Orit Eyal-Fibeesh, who is keen to get the group up and running.
Yakubov says that a hallmark of the institute is that “our doors are always open. It is in our DNA to listen to our students, and to turn out graduates who are good citizens as well as good students”. The UK venture will help HIT in this ambition — what you might call the vital ingredient in Eduard Yakubov’s recipe for success.
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