Last update - 00:00 31/12/2006
University students set to strike on Wednesday over tuition hike
By Tamara Traubmann, Haaretz Correspondent
University students plan to intensify their campaigm against the Shochat Committee on Reform in Higher Education by going on strike Wednesday.
According to the National Students Union, the strike will be held in protest of the formation of the Shochat Committee, which is likely to recommend a significant raise in tuition fees.
Strikes will be held at Tel Aviv University, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Haifa University, Ben Gurion University in Be'er Sheva, Wingate College and the College of Management.
The Shochat Committee was appointed on November 8 by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Education Minister Yuli Tamir and Finance Minister Abraham Hirchson.
The committee, which is to submit its initial recommendations by late April 2007, is comprised of Tamir, Finance Ministry officials, representatives of the Council for Higher Education and senior professors, but it does not include student representation.
National Student Union Chairman Itay Sonschein said that students at all academic institutions will strike for an extended period, should the government fail to deliver on the pledge to lower tuition fees by 50 percent made by government of former prime minister Ehud Barak in 2001.
The student associations are seeking to replace the Shochat committee by a committee headed by a retired justice in order to increase its impartiality.
According to chairman of the Tel Aviv University Student's Union, Boaz Toporovsky, the strike is being held to protest "the finance and education ministries' policy of privatizing higher education."
"If there is something that the government does consistently, it is failing to live up to its promises," Toporovsky said.