Government to re-evalutate tuition hikes
Education Minister orders special committee to reassess proposed cuts to university funding after a week of student demonstrations
“The committee decided the issue of university tuition, which makes up 75 percent of its budget, must be assessed,” Livnat said, adding that the group would also re-establish a separate board to evaluate tuition regulation.
“This is out of concern for the weaker public sector,” she said.
Livnat made her comments hours after thousands of students clashed with police in the northern town of Haifa during the latest in a week-long series of protests against the proposed regulations. Police arrested several students after the demonstration turned violent when officers tried to stop students from blocking a main road.
Israel's larger universities, including Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, are government funded. The government had announced plans to cut budgets of many universities, some of which have deficits of more than 200 million shekels (USD 46 million).
Tel Aviv University officials said earlier this month that the school plans to gradually eliminate several majors in a bid to lower the undergraduate population from 29,000 to 25,000.
Livnat said that a plan was signed last year to increase the higher education budget by 2.5 billion shekels (about USD 600 million) within five years.
“The students must have overlooked that plan,” she said. “The students have gotten out of control. I’m sorry their protest became violent. That was uncalled for.”
Haifa University Student Association President Uri Greenberger said the protest was meant to be peaceful but that several Arab-Israeli students had turned it violent to “make headlines.”
Annual university tuition in Israel for an undergraduate student is around 11,000 shekels (USD 2,257).
- Moran Zelikovich contributed to this report
