Haifa University is conducting a study to find out why about 25 percent of its Arab students drop out at the end of their first year. Eliezer Rafaeli, vice-president of the university, said one explanation of the high drop-out rate is due to the difficulties in the transition from Arabic-speaking schools in the sheltered social climate of the traditional Arab community to the sophisticated environment of a modern Hebrew-speaking university. Another difficulty, he noted, was the need for many Arab students to travel long distances from their villages to Haifa because of the shortage of accommodations in town, Jewish home-owners, Rafaeli said, are reluctant to rent rooms to Arab students and Arabs do not usually take in lodgers.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
