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Driven by internationalisation goals, since 2010 several organisations have worked to align the Israeli higher education system with the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) and Bologna Process. Two large-scale collaborative projects, Tempus-CORINTHIAM and Tempus-ESPRIT, and the formation of an independent national resource and training centre, the Bologna Training Center, have been at the core of this process. The key milestones in these projects include:

• The Ben-Gurion University of the Negev created Israel’s first international office to focus on promoting student mobility abroad in 2006. Experience in past Erasmus programmes led to a realisation that the Israeli higher education system needed to be aligned with ECTS and the Bologna Process.
• The Tempus-CORINTHIAM project (2010-2013) aimed to introduce ECTS on an experimental basis to Israeli universities. There were 14 project partners in total. The four Israeli partners introduced ECTS in a variety of courses and modules, in parallel with the existing recognition system, proving that the two systems could co-exist. The project resulted in the Bologna Training Center (BTC), a national resource and training centre, established in 2012, to provide training workshops and information days on ECTS and Bologna.
• A collaborative project emerged from the BTC, to address the need for recognition of social engagement. Tempus-ESPRIT (2013-2016) had six Israeli partners: The National Union of Israeli Students and five academic institutions, as well as partners experienced in social engagement in education from the UK, Spain and the Czech Republic, and the Centre for Higher Education (CHE) in Germany.  The partners consulted c.9,000 individuals, and developed and piloted a social benchmarking tool. The tool covers both external social responsibility (relationship with surroundings/community) and internal social responsibility (e.g. labour issues, codes of ethics, environmental responsibilities). The project brought together a network of representatives running socially-engaged courses, to increase visibility and connectivity.

Results:

• Israeli HEIs are able to participate in Erasmus+.
• ECTS and Bologna are a part of the ongoing conversation.
• Social engagement is more visible and recognisable.
• There has been a take-up of socially-engaged courses. For example, the Tel Aviv University now requires its students to participate in at least one socially engaged course.

The efforts are supported by the Israel’s Council for Higher Education, who provide funding to institutions for socially engaged courses.