The World’s Universities with Real Impact (WURI) annual survey has ranked Afeka – Tel Aviv Academic College of Engineering as the fifth-best academic institution globally in crisis management for its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The survey’s Crisis Management category measures how well an academic institute adapts in the midst of the most pressing challenges of our time, including climate change, the pandemic, and other global and local crises.
An innovative hybrid teaching and learning model enabled all students across Afeka College’s 52 classrooms and laboratories to study simultaneously and without disruption during the pandemic regardless of the changing instructions of the health authorities. This was facilitated by an innovative design that combines an array of technological solutions within classrooms, coupled with mobile laboratory kits distributed to students. The overall solution earned the Israeli institution this international recognition, marking the second consecutive year that Afeka College ranked among WURI’s top 10 in crisis management, rising from ninth place in 2021 to fifth place this year.
“As an institution educating the next generation of engineers, we need to adapt to any changing reality, and that’s exactly what we did,” said Prof. Ami Moyal, President of Afeka College. “We made an early strategic decision to be prepared for any scenario – from fully remote teaching and learning to synchronous hybrid teaching with faculty in class and students at home or with student capsules in class or a full return to campus. A key feature had to be that we could transition rapidly between these scenarios. I am proud to say that throughout the pandemic not one day of classes was missed.”
WURI 2022 ranks nearly 800 submissions from over 300 universities across 60 countries in a peer-evaluation process. In addition to crisis management, the rankings encompass Industrial Application; Value Creating; Social Responsibility, Ethics, and Integrity; and Student Mobility and Openness, recognizing academic institutes around the world for their “real contribution to society, highlighting creative and innovative approaches of research and educational programs.”
Afeka is the only Israeli institute to have placed in the Crisis Management category.