Israel

The PPE undergraduate program in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The program was the first to open in Israel in 1999 (there are now four more PPE programs in the country). The program is independent but relies heavily on the curricula of the Philosophy, Economics, and Political science departments. Each year about 100 students are enrolled in the program, which is one of the most selective in the Social Sciences and Humanities in Israel. 

The program’s faculty are all joint appointments with another department. Currently there are 10 faculty members in the program: 2 philosophers, 3 economists, 3 political scientists (2 of which work mainly in political theory), one sociologist and one who holds a joint appointment with the School of Public Policy and Governance.

Students must take a total of 132 credit points during their 3 years of study (in the Israeli system one credit point is – or equivalent to – 13 hours of frontal instruction). Towards the end of the third semester students choose one of the three component subjects (Philosophy, Political Science or Economics) as their major. Students take roughly 2/5 of their credit points in courses offered by the department of their major subject, 1/5 in each of the two other component departments and 1/5 in courses exclusive to the PPE program. The latter aim to help the student develop an interdisciplinary perspective (a partial list: “State, Market, Morality: an Interdisciplinary Introduction”, “Text Reading in PPE”, “Economic Topics in PPE”, “Philosophy of Social Science”, “Political Economy”). Upon completion they obtain a BA in “Integrative Program: Philosophy, Economics and Political Science”.

Many program graduates are employed at all levels of government ministries, though in recent years the Hi-Tech industry has attracted a large number of them too. Other graduates can be found in the media, research institutions and universities (5 of our program faculty are our graduates).