Message from the President
Dear Visitor,
You have arrived at the Academic College of Tel-Aviv-Yaffo (MTA), an extraordinary institution of higher education in Israel with a particular social-and-academic mission. The first of all state-funded colleges in Israel, the MTA was founded over a quarter-century ago in order to reach beyond the ivory tower to expand top-quality academic learning to wider spans of Israeli society. We at the MTA believe that higher education should rest on three legs of equal weight and significance: academic excellence, innovative and personalized teaching, and social-cum-ethical commitment to our environment.
Our location in Jaffa and Southern Tel Aviv, probably the most socially diverse and communally dynamic urban area in Israel, allows us to fulfil this mission locally as well as nationally and globally. Indeed, as the diametric opposite of an ivory tower, one can think of the Academic College of Tel-Aviv-Yaffo as a bridge: a bride between North and South, between Jaffa and Tel Aviv; a bridge between diverse groups in Israeli society – center and periphery, Jews and Arabs, seculars and ultra-orthodox next to Christians and Muslims; a bridge between students from academic backgrounds and students from under-privileged backgrounds, between well-to-do students and those who receive our fellowships to become the first in their families to hold an academic degree; a bridge between academic excellence and broadening access to higher education; a bridge between academic programs and a broad social and communal impact.
We are deeply invested in new models of teaching and of student experiences – what we call Academia Redefined or the New Academia – in order better to achieve all these goals while leaving no student behind. We are always interested in new ideas and possibilities for how to develop further. I invite you to become a partner in our mission and to join us in molding the future of Israel’s academia, economy and society.
With best wishes,
Professor Dror Wahrman
President