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Photo: Motti Kimchi
Tel Aviv University
Photo: Motti Kimchi

Universities protest plan to cut NIS 263 million from higher education budget

Heads of universities say planned cuts are 'destructive to Israel's economy, its development and prosperity'; Students Union leader threatens strike.

Students, lecturers and the presidents of Israel's universities have joined forces to protest the government's plan to cut NIS 263 million from the budget for higher education.

 

 

The academic school year ended a month ago, and will begin again in three months, but the head of the National Union of Israeli Students has already threatened to go on strike if the cuts to the budget are not canceled.

 

"While we all take pride in Israel's labeling as the 'startup nation', the number of Israeli Nobel Prize laureates and the achievements of Israeli research in general – we, the presidents of the universities, are concerned we would not be able to open the next academic school year if the planned cuts will indeed move ahead," the members of Israel's Association of University Heads (VERA), led by the president of the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Prof. Peretz Lavie, wrote in a letter sent to the prime minister, the ministers of education and finance, and the members of Knesset.

 

Photo: Ido Erez
Photo: Ido Erez

 

"These cuts are destructive. The State of Israel, with this decision, is hurting its most important resource –  people – as well as the future of the Israeli economy, its development and prosperity."

 

According to Prof. Lavie, "the consequences of these cuts are returning to the lost decade," during which Israeli research suffered a major hit.

 

Among the immediate consequences expected are: Reducing the financing for projects to reverse the "brain drain" and encourage Israeli academics to return from abroad; hurting the quality of teaching; increasing the ratio between lecturers and students due to a reduction in lecturer positions; and most importantly, a serious blow to Israeli research.

 

The National Union of Israeli Students said it would take drastic steps against the planned cuts, including mass protests.

 

"What is outrageous is that the decision to make cuts in the budget is not a result of pressing present needs, but of purely political considerations," said the head of the Students Union, Gilad Arditi. "A further cut, one so broad, will set higher education back. Even now, public investment in higher education in Israel and public support for students are lower than average among OECD states."

 

Indeed, data released by the OECD shows that the average public spending in Israel on higher education for each student is much lower compared to the average in industrialized countries – by some $2,500. In fact, Israel is among the few countries in which public spending on higher education decreased in recent years. For comparison's sake, in the United States, $26,000 is spent on each student at a higher education institution, while countries like Sweden, Denmark and Norway spend $18-20,000 a year on each student. In Israel, however, only $11,500 is spent on each student, more than $2,000 below the OECD average.

 

Photo: Malanit
Photo: Malanit

 

Education Minister Naftali Bennett said on Wednesday that he was "astounded" to learn about the planned cuts to higher education.

 

"One lost decade in academia was enough for us. I won't let it happen again, not on my watch," he said. "Nobel Prize laureates won't come from watching Big Brother, but from a massive investment in higher education, research and teaching."

 

The Finance Ministry denied that this was a cut to the budget, saying budgetary constraints led to reduction in budgets across the board: "In the 2016 budget, there is a gap between the state's revenues ands its expenditures, so a broad re-organization of all government ministries is needed in order to reduce government spending. The Finance Ministry's Budget Department has left the decision of what cuts to make to the ministries."

 

The Finance Ministry also stressed that higher education's budget, which is currently NIS 9 billion, has increased by some NIS 2 billion since 2011.

 

"As you can see, in practice, these aren't cuts, but a reduction of the planned additions to the budget. So in relation to the increase in budget over the past few years, there won't be any significant damage caused to higher education," the Finance Ministry said.

 


פרסום ראשון: 07.23.15, 12:59
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