All students out there interested in experiencing a semester abroad: Shenkar will soon be accepting applications for the Spring semester 2024! (Please refer to your International Office for details on the application procedure).

Application Deadline: November 30 2023.

In a survey among incoming students in 2016-2018, an encouraging 69% rated their exchange experience with us as invaluable.

Here are some important stats based on their feedback for you to consider:

• Origin: so far, 75% of exchange students coming to Shenkar were German-speaking (coming from academies in Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands), with regular exchanges also from France, Italy, Estonia and Poland.
• Reasons for choosing Shenkar: an exciting location (Tel Aviv) and the renowned academic reputation, comes up again and again as the main reasons for choosing Shenkar as a popular study abroad destination. Among others: vibrant Israeli culture, welcoming climate, and a great food scene.
• Safety: 94% of exchange students reported feeling “safe” (38%) or “very safe” (56%) in Israel during their exchange.
• Budget: being a tourist you always end up spending more than locals, and unfortunately, Israel is an expensive country to live in – for everyone. 88% of our students stated that the cost of living in Israel was significantly higher than their regular budget. The remaining 12% agreed that the cost of living exceeded their expectations. This means that you better start saving up for your exchange now, and don’t miss out on any scholarship opportunities!
• Accommodation: the search for accommodation and the cost of renting makes up one of the greatest and most frustrating challenges for our exchange students. This is the down side of dwelling in one of the liveliest and exciting cities – Tel Aviv. Nevertheless, let us try and equip you with some shared wisdom and advice:
  1. The easiest and most effective way of finding accommodation was through friends (and friends of friends) in Israel, or upon arrival to Israel. Distant online searching provided almost nothing, but desperation. So, in advance, try to activate any social linkage to Israel you might have, and arrive early for the ground search.
  2. Sweetest deals: house-swaps with Israeli students leaving for exchange abroad, organized through the International Offices of Shenkar and your home academy. We are working on enabling more of this!
  3. About 70% of students chose to live in Tel Aviv, while 30% stayed close to Shenkar campus, in Ramat Gan (literally a highway away from Tel Aviv). The opinions about the former vary, which can be summarized in comments from one of the students: “Ramat Gan is not as bad as everybody is saying and so much cheaper!”
  4. FYI: average price of a room in a shared apartment in Tel Aviv is 2800-3400 NIS (including bills).
  5. Many students complained about the quality of rentals: in an overheated real-estate market such as Tel Aviv – anything goes, which probably means that you shouldn’t jump on the first opportunity, and something better will come your way eventually. Nevertheless, the average condition of rentals might be lower than what you are used to, and you will lose precious time searching for the perfect deal – so consider compromising here and there.
• Facilities: 25% of students found facilities provided by Shenkar better than in their home academies, specifically the workshops, textile equipment, library and on-campus art supply shop.
• Language of instruction: many students underestimate the impact of finding oneself in a different language environment. Shenkar is a public academy, and Hebrew being the official language of Israel, is the primary language of instruction and communication here, but we do have few English speaking courses in each Faculty and also courses we call "English Friendly", in which the official language is not English, but foreign language speaking students can get along in because the type of the course and the helping social immersive Israeli students environment.
• Choosing courses: when asked what information would be helpful prior to arrival at Shenkar, 35% of former students stated – the course catalog. This makes every sense. But as a dynamic and evolving academy, it is hard to fulfil this expectation since new courses are created all the time, and others are dropped. As exchange student at Shenkar, you are offered a number of courses at the department you were accepted to, in addition to which you can choose courses of your liking from other Art and Design Departments. This wide range of possibilities makes it difficult to provide relevant course information months in advance, and is normally presented during orientation session. To compensate, we allow students to trial the first 2 weeks of the course – without commitment – before they are required to make a final decision regarding registration. Deal?
• Last but not least: a great summary of tips from a fellow student: “Live in a shared flat, get a bike, travel around in Israel, go hiking, do couch surfing, go to Jerusalem at least twice - first as a tourist and second with friends, have a lot of Shabbat dinners, get veggies from Shuk HaCarmel on Fridays, eat dates and walnuts (and everything else) at Levinski Market, take a break at the green hills next to Shenkar and EAT A LOT OF HUMMUS!”

For further information, get in touch with your home International Office or contact studentexchange@shenkar.ac.il