Following mounting political and social pressures to increase public accessibility to higher education in Israel, in 1994 Israel's academic arena was transformed from a monolithic system consisting exclusively of research universities to a binary one comprised of both research universities and academic colleges. Within the system's expansions plans, Israel's Council for Higher Education prioritized the increased accessibility of higher education to peripheral populations, defining this as a central aim. This transformation was achieved in a short period of time through regional colleges that...