Page 14 - PresidentReport2024Portrait

Meet

Dr. Tzachi Milgrom,

Vice President

Dr. Tzachi Milgrom is Vice President of HAC. He earned a Ph.D. with a focus
on Science Education, Science Technology, and Society from The Hebrew
University of Jerusalem. Before coming to HAC 24 years ago as Dean of
Academic Affairs, Tzachi was head of R&D teams at the Science Teaching
Center of The Hebrew University. He began working closely with Tolo
in 2012, since which time they have managed HAC together, dividing the
responsibilities between them.

Tzachi has a strong credo that does not always bear well with his colleagues
at other institutions of higher education: “studies are important,” he says,
“but if students graduate successfully, even with excellent grades, but we
have not helped them advance socio-economically, then we have failed in
our mission. This essential mission is not just ‘nice to have,’ but it enables
more graduates from different sectors of Israeli society to get a good
education.” “In this context,” he adds, “our job is not just to create knowledge,
but to teach. And, our Career Counseling Center operates so that students
start thinking about their future starting in the second year of their studies.”

During the time that Tzachi has been at HAC, the number of degree programs
offered at the College has grown to 15, all of which are job-oriented. “For
example,” he explains, “instead of offering a B.Sc. in Biology (which you can’t
really do much with except teach high school or continue to a graduate degree)
we teach Biotechnology, which is a profession in high demand. Our Department of
Biotechnology offers a degree which was the first of its kind in the country. Similarly,
we teach economics and accounting together, which provides graduates with
more job opportunities.”

Tzachi’s first task at the College was to open “designated” mechinot, or
pre-academic courses, which was an innovative concept at the time. “Our
thinking was ‘why should a student spend time completing his bagrut (matriculation) when he can
start investing in his future?’ So, we offered designated pre-academic courses in the sciences and
in Hebrew.” Other institutions of higher education finally realized the advantages of this strategy
and have followed suit in recent years and, more importantly, there is mutual recognition of these
programs by the different institutions.

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