2,700 new students (an increase of more than 100 students over last year) will begin studying at the Technion next week (November 9). Orientation day for new students, in which they will receive a guided orientation, will take place on November 6th.

The most popular faculties are medicine, electrical engineering and computer science. The demand for electrical engineering and computer science went up also this year for the fifth year in a row. The admission cut off points for both faculties went up as well. Admission quotas have been full for some time and outstanding candidates have been deferred to the spring semester. Demand for the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management also has been increasing in recent years.

In the new academic year, the Technion will be launching a new program – “A Good Start” – aimed at improving, enriching and enhancing the first-year learning experience. The Technion’s Senior Executive Vice President, Prof. Paul Feigin, said that in the first stage, the program will focus on base courses in mathematics. In the program’s framework, the number of students in exercise groups will decrease to 30 to 37 per group, additional teaching strategies will be integrated and personal interaction and learning between the student and the teaching assistant will be improved, as well as among students. Enrichment workshops in these courses will be provided as well as assistance in homework preparation.

The Technion has placed special emphasis on recruiting and encouraging outstanding graduate degree students (master’s and doctoral). The Institute is offering them generous stipends and to those with families – convenient apartments in student housing. Presently, work has started on building a new graduate student village on the campus. More than 3,000 graduate students will be studying at the Technion this year and the intention is to increase this number.

The students will have at their disposal advanced sports facilities, including two swimming pools (one of which is Olympic size), a new workout room and more than 4,000 beds in the student dorms. This year, the Technion opened for the first time a social network on the Internet, which is at the disposal of and for use by new students. Through this network, they can meet one another and find students from the same towns in order to organize transportation to the campus or find roommates.