6. Higher Education in Management: The Case of Israel

The relationship between society’s needs and its educational systems has been discussed at great length. For some, education should ideally be detached from society’s demands—students should be prepared to contribute to social progress without being limited by the established order. An opposing view contends that social needs always determine developments within the educational system, an idea which has been interpreted in several ways. Critical approaches lament the way capitalism utilizes the educational system to provide businesses with the manpower needed to make profits, while reform-minded or indeed conservative authors celebrate this manifestation of the raison d’être of education: to prepare students to meet society’s requirements. As far as academic education in the field of management in Israel is concerned, as we will see, it appears to be consistent with the ideal-type of an educational system determined by social needs.