Overview
The University of Haifa was founded in 1963 by Haifa mayor Abba Hushi, to operate under the academic auspices of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Haifa University is located on Mount Carmel. In 1972, the University of Haifa declared its independence and became the sixth academic institution in Israel and the fourth university.
About 18,100 undergraduate and graduate students study in the university a wide variety of topics, specializing in social sciences, humanities, law and education. The university is broadly divided into six faculties: Humanities, Social Sciences, Law, Science and Science Education, Social Welfare and Health Studies, and Education. There is also the Graduate School of Management, The Leon H. Charney School of Marine Sciences and the Continuing Education and Extension Studies, as well as an international school offering courses in English.
In 2024, the University established Israel's first university-based design school following a historic merger with the Neri Bloomfield Haifa School of Design (WIZO Haifa). Headed by Professor Leah Peretz, the School of Design continues to operate at its campus in the German Colony in downtown Haifa, offering academic programs in architecture, fashion design, visual communication, and photography.
The University officially opened the Herta and Paul Amir School of Medicine in October 2025 to address the acute shortage of physicians in northern Israel. The school's inaugural class consisted of 74 students. Professor Haim Bitterman, the former Chief Medical Officer of Clalit Health Services and former Vice Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, serves as the school's founding dean. Developed in collaboration with Clalit Health Services and the Carmel Medical Center, the school focuses its curriculum heavily on modern medical practices such as telemedicine and community-based medicine.
Beyond the objective of a first-rate higher education, the University of Haifa aims to provide equal educational opportunities to all, and in particular to encourage mutual understanding and cooperation between the Jewish and Arab populations on and off campus. The university is a home for students from all sectors of Israeli society—Jews, Muslims, Christians, Druze, religious and secular students and also many students from all over the world who study in the international school. In 2025, Arabs made up 44 percent of the student body.
The University of Haifa is home to the Hecht Museum of archaeology and art, several research centers and institutes, including the Evolution Institute, Center for the Study of the Information Society, Center for the Study of National Security, Tourism Research Center, and more. The university also hosts a large IBM research center on its campus.
The university ranked in the top 100 institutions for UN sustainability goals. The university signed a memorandum of understanding with the Bahraini King Hamad Global Centre for Peaceful Coexistence to promote coexistence between Jews and Arabs.
Academic journals
Mishpat U’Memshal (Law and Government) – Founded in 1992, the journal deals with current and relevant public law issues. The publishing team is mainly composed of students under the academic supervision of a senior editor appointed by the Faculty of Law.
Hearot Din (Illuminating the Law) – Founded in 2004, the journal deals with changes in legal rulings in Israel. The publishing team is mainly composed of students under the academic supervision of a senior editor appointed by the Faculty of Law.
Din U’Devarim (Haifa Law Review) – Founded in 2005, the journal focuses on the interaction between the law and other fields of knowledge, especially the humanities and social sciences, but also serves as a platform for traditional legal writing. Faculty members produce the articles with the assistance of outstanding students at the Faculty of Law.
The Journal of Holocaust Research—formerly Dapim: Studies on the Holocaust (2009–2018)—is a bilingual (Hebrew and English) academic journal produced by the University of Haifa and the Ghetto Fighters' House and published by Routledge. It is available online and in print.
Michmanim – The Reuben and Edith Hecht Museum publishes a scholarly, dual language journal on archaeological research and artifacts in the museum's collections.
.png){kind=logo}
