Braude College of Engineering

Braude College of Engineering occupies a campus at 51 Snonit Street in western Karmiel, a city in the Galilee about 40 kilometers from Haifa.[7][2] Official library directories list variants of the institution's former ORT name and assign its library the code OBC.[7][8]

The college operates with the approval and budgetary support of Israel's Council for Higher Education.[6][2] It is also classified as an academic institution in the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Research Portal.[9] Its stated mission is to prepare engineers and applied-science professionals through academic programs, hands-on learning, and connections with industry and the wider community. Its published CORE values are Collaboration, Opportunity, Social Responsibility, and Excellence.[10]

One historical reference places ORT Israel's opening of ORT Braude in 1988, during an expansion that had begun in the late 1960s as the organization moved beyond manual-trade training toward education combining academic and vocational preparation. It describes the college as ORT Israel's next purpose-built flagship institution after the Harmatz School of Engineering and says both resulted from dedicated fundraising campaigns.[4]

Electrical and Electronics Engineering studies began in 1993, with the department's first B.Sc. degrees awarded in 2001. Software Engineering studies opened in 1996, producing their first graduating class in 2000. Information Systems Engineering was added in 2004, with its first graduates completing the program in 2007.[11]

In 2009, the college received the Yitzhak Rabin National Award for Quality and Excellence in the Public Sector.[2] By 2014, approximately 3,000 students were enrolled in bachelor's-degree programs. A report that year said the Council for Higher Education had approved additional fields of study over time, while ORT Israel stated that master's-degree programs had also been approved.[5]

Around 2022, the college separated from the ORT network and began operating independently.[12] Professor Sarit Sivan joined its biotechnology engineering department in 2013, later headed the department and served as vice president for academic affairs, and was appointed college president in May 2024. She also helped establish research laboratories and a semi-industrial pilot laboratory at the institution.[12]

The college's English overview lists B.Sc. programs in Software Engineering, Information Systems Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Industrial Engineering and Management, Biotechnology Engineering, Civil Engineering, and Applied Mathematics.[3] Its Hebrew website additionally lists Computer Science and two dual-major programs pairing Electrical and Electronic Engineering with either Mechanical Engineering or Applied Mathematics.[2] The English overview lists M.Sc. programs in Software Engineering, Industrial Engineering and Management, Biotechnology, and Systems Engineering.[3]

A defining feature of the college's approach is industry engagement integrated into the curriculum. Final-year capstone projects address actual challenges faced by partner companies and are co-supervised by academic faculty and a mentor from the host organization. Industrial site visits and guest lectures by industry professionals also form part of the educational experience.[13] The college describes itself as the only institution in Israel whose study programs systematically include placements both in industry and at other academic institutions.[2]

The college reports that 90% of its graduates are employed as engineers, with a special focus on the Galilee and fields such as electrical, mechanical, and civil engineering.[13] Many graduates complete their final projects at a company and subsequently continue working there.[12] The college reports more than 11,000 engineering graduates working across high-tech, manufacturing, healthcare, and defense.[3]

International engagement includes the "One Semester in Israel" program, offered in English and described as equivalent to one semester of an engineering curriculum at an American university. It is designed for junior-level engineering students, nominally in their sixth semester, and is delivered through partnerships with universities abroad.[14]

The college reports a student body of more than 3,000, while a Campus IL profile gives a figure of about 3,400 students.[3][6] Its students include Jews, Muslims, Christians, Druze, and members of other minority communities, reflecting the diverse population of the Galilee.[3] Women make up approximately 32% of the undergraduate and graduate student body. The college maintains a Gender Equality Unit led by an advisor to the president and offers encouragement scholarships, personal mentoring, and career-advancement workshops to support female students.[15]

Expanding access and equal opportunity, including support for underserved communities and first-generation higher-education students, is presented as a core element of the college's mission. More than 1,000 scholarships were awarded in 2025.[3] Under ORT, the Karmiel campus was described as one of three boarding campuses, primarily serving students from abroad, new immigrants, and students from distant parts of Israel who would have difficulty commuting.[16]

Beyond degree-seeking students, the college's science-and-technology youth unit reaches more than 10,000 young people each year, extending its educational impact into the wider Galilee community.[12]

Braude College frames its relationship with Israeli industry as central to its identity. Its programs are developed to suit the needs of the Israeli economy, with particular attention to engineering fields in northern Israel.[6][13] Its educational model combines theoretical study with practical specialization in companies, factories, and research institutes in Israel and abroad.[6]

A research-and-development subsidiary of the college has produced two startup companies.[12] In 2023, a startup-advice panel held on campus for students from the Galilee brought together investor Daniel Bernard, Indoor Robotics co-founder Doron Ben David, and 365x program manager Daniela Weinsweig. The event, organized by Rabbi Nosson Rodin of the campus Chabad and founder of Project UP-START, previewed a planned 12-session accredited entrepreneurship course with a curriculum developed by Ronald Hans of Tech Talk Media.[17]

The existing Karmiel campus covers approximately 17,000 square metres and includes classrooms, laboratories, a library, and an auditorium.[18] In 2021, Karmiel's local planning and building committee approved an architectural master plan intended to roughly double the college's area. The plan envisioned approximately 10 buildings totaling around 30,000 square metres on a site of about 95 dunams, at an estimated cost exceeding NIS 400 million.[18]

The first phase was then expected to begin in the first half of 2022 and be completed in 2025. It called for two new buildings costing approximately NIS 100 million: a 2,500-square-metre facility for biotechnology engineering and a 3,500-square-metre building for mechanical engineering and physics that would also provide initial infrastructure for a civil-engineering program. A later multipurpose teaching building was estimated at NIS 80–100 million, with further investment to draw on donations, college funds, and additional support from the Council for Higher Education's Planning and Budgeting Committee.[18]

As of September 2026, the estimated cost of the new campus had risen to approximately half a billion shekels, most of which the college hoped to raise through donations.[12] The project was developed in partnership with the Municipality of Karmiel and the Council for Higher Education, with plans for multidisciplinary laboratories and shared innovation spaces intended to bring students, faculty, and industry partners together.[19]

The college's founding year is inconsistent across sources. Its current English and Hebrew About pages give 1995.[3][2] A college brochure and a 2015 Calcalist report both cite 1993.[11][5] An Encyclopedia.com history of ORT places the opening in 1988.[4] The cited material does not provide a single authoritative record resolving the discrepancy.

In 2015, a State Comptroller review found that ORT Braude did not meet Council for Higher Education norms for academic and administrative independence. The Comptroller found that ORT Israel representatives controlled important decisions and that financial transfers between the college and ORT Israel occurred without adequate transparency or oversight. The Comptroller recommended restructuring the college's corporate form to allow independent operation and representation by bodies beyond ORT Israel. ORT Israel disputed the implications of the findings, arguing that student numbers and program offerings had continued to grow.[5] Ynet reported in September 2026 that the college had separated from the ORT network about four years earlier.[12]