therefore they need to develop strong collaborative links with each other in order to improve their education service and applied research capacity recognising the need to increase geographic accessibility some colleges have proposed extension centres located in arab villages but authorities have rejected these initiatives authorities should consider providing support for specific higher education extension learning centres served by several different colleges and possibly universities and the open university in villages with low tertiary education participation rates however there are considerable gaps in terms of regional delivery and the galilee and particularly its arab population appears to be underserved by the open university provision