The Shochat Committee on higher education reform is expected to recommend that university tuition be raised to NIS 14,800 a year. Students will be required to pay part of the sum at the beginning of the year and the rest in monthly payments, sources on the committee told Haaretz.

The committee spokesman declined to confirm or deny the information.

The Shochat Committee is to submit its recommendations, covering a variety of aspects of the higher education system, in the second week of July to the cabinet.

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The envisioned tuition hike will not apply to the coming year, for which registration will be closing soon. The proposed new tuition rate is 70 percent higher than the present annual rate of NIS 8,588. Students will have to pay between NIS 4,000 and NIS 6,000 at the beginning of the year. Monthly payments can be financed by loans and spread out into small increments.

The committee is expected to recommend that the budget for student loans and scholarships be significantly increased.

When the committee started its work, sources on the committee told Haaretz it had decided to recommend a tuition hike, and the main debate was over the extent and means of financial assistance to students.

The spectre of a tuition hike ignited a strike that shut down studies in universities for approximately six weeks, one of the longest student strikes in Israel.

The recent report of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development notes reveals that university tuition in Israel is higher than in most developed countries. In statistics for the 2003/2004 academic year, Israel ranked 8th out of 27 countries in terms of tuition rates. In 10 countries tuition is free or very low; in eight European countries the government gives student grants and stipends. The report also stated that assistance to Israeli students is among the lowest among developed countries. In other countries, 17 percent of public expenditure on education is invested in scholarship and grants for students, in Israel the number is only 10 percent.