Tuition fees for law, business, accounting could hit NIS 31,000

Tuition for undergraduate majors in law, business administration and accounting will climb to NIS 31,000 per year if the Finance Ministry's demand for stopping state subsidies in these fields goes into effect, says the Council for Higher Education.

The 2009 Economic Arrangements Law, published last week, instructs the council's planning and budgetary committee to cease funding undergraduate programs in these subjects at institutions of higher education, starting in the 2008-2009 academic year. In line with this directive, the proposed law stipulates that NIS 80 million from the base annual funding for higher education will be cut.

The three fields of study (law, business administration and accounting) draw about 10 percent of all undergraduates in public institutions of higher learning in Israel.

The Council for Higher Education calculates that canceling the subsidies will raise tuition in these fields to NIS 29,000-31,000 per year, four times higher than the current annual cost of NIS 8,600.

Currently the state funds nearly 50 percent of the tuition and fees of undergraduates, approximately NIS 9,000 per student. Officials at the Finance Ministry argue that if students are required to pay the full amount of tuition, it would stand at NIS 18,000 per year.

However, the council claims that if the costs in public institutions are not subsidized in the fields of law, business administration and accounting, the universities will have to charge rates similar to those of private institutions. Tuition at private institutions in those fields ranges from NIS 27,000 to 34,000 per year.

Sources at the council also argue that if state subsidies to these specific areas of study are stopped, then the institutions will face higher employment costs for the faculty, as well as matching their contract conditions to senior faculty in private institutions.

The Finance Ministry says the proposal for raising tuition in fields whose graduates are expected to earn high wages was first raised by the university presidents. Moreover, treasury officials say that "raising tuition in these departments will provide universities with further means for countering the competition... from private colleges that are not subsidized."

"The decision on how to fund the 50 percent that is being subsidized by the state is in the hands of the heads of higher education [in Israel], whether by raising the cost of tuition in these departments or by the universities [juggling funds] themselves," the same sources said.

Student unions have warned they will oppose raising tuition as proposed in the Economic Arrangements Law and threatened they will conduct "a war to the end" against it.