The percentage of Israeli Arabs who attend higher education institutions has risen by 7 points between 1991 and 2002, but remains significantly lower than that of their Jewish counterparts, according to a recent report by the planning and budget committee of the Council for Higher Education.

The report, released last week, found that some 19 percent of the graduates of Arab high schools went on to attend higher education institutions in 2002, compared to 11 percent in 1991, the report found. More than 40 percent of all Israeli high school graduates attend college or university.

“It’s true that there’s progress, but ultimately, the proportion of those who come for academic studies is half that of [the rate] in the country as a whole,” said Fadi Abu Yunes, head of the National Arab Student Union.

He said that in the last few years, special admission requirements have been instituted that make it difficult for Israeli Arabs to go to college or university, such as personal interviews for popular subjects like medicine and occupational therapy.

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem medical school, for instance, has changed its admissions methods, leading to a sharp decrease in the number of Arab students accepted this year.

While the rate of Israeli Arab students at Israeli colleges nearly doubled between 1991 and 2001, the rate of those attending universities rose by only two percentage points, to 9 percent. Some 63 percent of Israeli Arabs attending institutes of higher education are studying in colleges, which are considered less prestigious than universities and provide fewer advantages in the marketplace.

There were some 6,500 Arab undergraduates at universities in 2002 and 6,827 in teacher training colleges in 2002, totaling about 11 percent of all Israeli undergraduates.