Student associations of all universities and colleges plan to go on a nationwide strike beginning on Tuesday.

The students are demanding that a higher education budget cut of more than NIS 1 billion in the past few years be reversed, and that the government back down from its intention to raise tuition. The students said that there was no limit for the duration of the strike and that they are preparing for a lengthy fight.

The strike will encompass 250,000 students studying at all the universities and colleges in Israel. According to the student associations, the planned strike has been coordinated with the lecturer associations and has the full support of both the senior and junior faculty.

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Lecturers object to the Finance Ministry's plan, which is being examined by the Shochat Committee on Reform in Higher Education, to implement personal contracts to all faculty members. Moreover, the Finance Ministry said it might use the committee's recommendations to impose new wage agreements on the lecturers.

Tel Aviv University Students' Union announced that it will allow students to enter the campus in order to hand in papers and have access to the libraries, in an attempt to minimize the damage done to the students. Classrooms, lecture halls and laboratories will all be locked an inaccessible, in coordination with the faculty union.

The planned strike comes in reaction to Committee Chairman Abraham Shochat's announcement prior to the holidays that "a hike in tuition fees, which will be accompanied by a massive aid program, is necessary to create financial sources that will be in addition to an expanded government budget."

Tuition Subcommittee Chairman Dr. Liora Meridor says that the committee is considering a differential tuition model which will be determined by the future income of each student's chosen field of study.

A month and a half ago, the student unions signed an agreement with the government in which they conceded many of their demands. While the students demanded that the budget cuts be reveresed, the agreement that was reached stated that "sources available to higher education will be increased." This vague wording may indicate a budget increase solely due to a hike in tuition fees and not in government spending.

The students also backed down from their demands to continue to lower tuition fees based on the recommendations of the 2001 Winograd committee (which stated that tuition should be lowered by 50 percent) and agreed that the tuition fees would only be frozen at their current rate of approximately NIS 9000.

The student's demands to cancel the Shochat Committee were also rejected as the students settled for minority representation in the tuition subcommittee. Since the signing of the agreement, many criticized the student associations and called for a renewed struggle against the government. Tel Aviv University and a number of colleges have even gone on short strikes in the past few weeks.

Tel Aviv University Student's Union Chairman Boaz Toporovsky said on Sunday that the strike is "the last line of defense for the students of Israel and the future of higher education and research which is deteriorating, as the best minds of our country flee. As soldiers of education, we will stand guard and continue to fight until tuition fees are lowered and the budget cuts returned."