Higher education reform group to recommend 70% tuition hike
Shochat Committee to suggest tuition rise to NIS 14,800, budget receive another NIS 2.5 billion over 5 years.
By Tamara TraubmannThe Shochat Committee's report on higher education reforms is to recommend that tuition be raised by about 70 percent, to NIS 14,800, and that the higher education budget increase by NIS 2.5 billion over five years, according to senior committee members.
The report is due to be submitted Monday to the cabinet, which must approve the recommendations before they can be implemented.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Education Minister Yuli Tamir said in May, in the wake of a 41-day student strike protesting the recommendations, that they would discuss the committee's findings with student associations before the cabinet votes on them.
Senior university officials said over the past few days they were happy with the recommendation to increase the higher education budget, but college and university students have warned that they will not stand for a tuition hike.
Only NIS 1.5-1.6 billion of the total budget increase will come from the government, according to the committee. The rest will come from the tuition hike and sources within the higher education establishment. The proposed increase follows a NIS 1.2 billion cut to the higher education budget.
The committee is recommending that students be charged between NIS 4,000 and NIS 6,000 up front at the beginning of the academic year, while the rest can be paid off in monthly installments that could also be defrayed by a loan. The recommendations include significantly increasing the budget for loans and scholarships. The tuition hike would not apply to the coming academic year.
Research funding will increase by NIS 800 million and the Israel Science Foundation will receive NIS 500 million, double its current budget, if the reforms are implemented. The committee is also calling for the establishment of a biomedical research foundation, half of whose funding would come from the higher education budget and half from outside donors. The committee is also recommending the establishment of a NIS 15 million fund for the humanities and increased scholarships for doctoral and post-doctoral students.
However, the committee recommends that, unlike universities, colleges not receive government funding for setting up a physical infrastructure to conduct research.
The Shochat Committee, headed by former finance minister Avraham Shochat, was appointed by the government in 2006 to examine the higher education system and recommend changes. Committee members include Education Minister Yuli Tamir and senior university professors, as well as representatives from the treasury, Prime Minister's Office and Council for Higher Education.
Faculty and student organizations have criticized the committee, while university administrators have welcomed it. Last year the university presidents said if the government doesn't restore the budget cuts, the universities would not be able to maintain the same academic standards and would therefore have to close for the next school year.
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"They had to work too, both during the semester and during vacation." And what do you think most American students do? As I have said before, maybe Israeli young adults have to forego the post-IDF around the world trip for a year and use that time to get a job to make college tuition. College in Israel is cheap. Come to a state school in Arizona and see how expensive it is for residents. It's a new era in Israel--time to change perceived ideas about the value of army duty and its aftereffects, especially to those bound to a desk during their service. Start putting your high school students to work like students in the US do. Kids here who need money earn it. Isn't that a strange concept?
#7 Ms or Mr WOW before you kill to pay 14K NIS. 1. Join the army 2. Let your parents receive an average Israeli wage retroactively since you were born. STOP!! THINK !! and then decide what we should pay here in Israel to be educated.
Come to Israel, serve 3 years in the army like our students, make an Israeli salary, pay Israeli taxes, and then see what you have left over for paying college tuition. My wife and I are not poor, but we both had to work very hard to put two of our children through college, and even that wasn't enough. They had to work too, both during the semester and during vacation. In the US, there is much more financial assistance available to students than there is in Israel. The son of a factory worker, I would never have been able to attend college without scholarships and loans.
Tuition will be increased to NIS 14,800, as recommended. Funding of higher education will not be increased by NIS 2.5 billion. That's the way it works in Israel - the state knows how to take - not to give.
I pay more than 11 times the cost of the PROPOSED hike a year for college. What on earth are people in Israel complaining about? I would kill for tuition at 14,800 shekels.
How is a "partially defrayed by a loan" deal going to work? Where is an Israeli student supposed to come up with most of this money? Tuition should be "fully defrayed by loans". FULL LOANS GUYS - get it right! And loans that are available to ALL students - not just those with wealthy parents who can co-sign. The cost of living in University cities is so far in excess of student wages it cuts more than 85% of our youth off of higher education. Either the government subsidizes tuition or allows for full loans and scholarship programs to be made available to everyone.
How and why would an educational system that produced developers of miracle medical treatments and high technology need reform? While arguments could be made that the complaining students seem spoiled, I would counter that the upper echelon fat cats are burning the bridges that carried them to glory.
#2 and #3: my personal experience has been that tuition in Israel is 10 times lower than in the United States. (Unless you want your children to study in some community college...)
#2 I agree
And what's worse: nobody in the country supports the students. Few realize that many if not most students study during the day, work during the night and barely ever sleep just to make ends meet and pay for their tuition. Being a student in Israel means for most of them an existence bordering on slavery. After your study, if you manage to finish despite all the difficulties, it's almost impossible to find a decent job with a decent salary in many areas, and people wonder why so many educated young people prefer to leave Israel behind? I don't. And just to make things clear: tuition in Israel is NOT relatively low compared to most other Western countries, the contrary, and on top of that people forget that the financial strength of the average Israeli is not even close to that of the average Westerner. But no, it is the students who are spoiled and should keep their mouths shut. Wake up people.
The report suggests that students (those that shall be receiving all the benefits) actually shoulder their share of the burden. The students say they want 'the state' to cover the expenses as if it's coming out of Olmert's pocket. There is no such thing as 'free' - 'free' education just means you (and everyone else) pay for it in taxes later. The same students that complain about hikes now are going to complain about taxes tomorrow if they get their way. Goddamn deadbeats