University year to start as scheduled

Olmert intervenes to stop strike; universities to receive over half a billion shekels to cover costs.

By ABE SELIG
olmert 224.88 (photo credit: GPO)
olmert 224.88
(photo credit: GPO)
There were sighs of relief all round on Thursday afternoon after government officials and the Council of University Presidents reached an agreement regarding funding for the 2008-09 university year, effectively ending fears that studies would be paralyzed by a strike for the third year in a row. The CUP - a body made up of the country's seven university heads - had sparked concerns over a disruption in classes when it announced in early October that the academic year would not begin as scheduled. This was due to a lack of funding and the government's failure to honor recommendations made by the Shochat Committee - a government body appointed in 2006 to assess the future of higher education in Israel. However, after days of uncertainty and student protests, an agreement was finally reached during a meeting between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Finance Minister Ronnie Bar-On, Education Minister Yuli Tamir and the university presidents. It was called after a number of previous negotiations between the sides broke down, threatening to end all hopes of a timely start to the academic year. Olmert instructed Bar-On and Tamir to oversee the allocation of NIS 465 million to the CUP - NIS 19 million less than the council's original demand. In addition, however, NIS 50 million was allocated to development needs, which will be paid for by the state, in accordance with a plan that university leaders will submit under Tamir's supervision. "The government sees considerable importance in higher education, in cultivating excellence within Israeli society, in bringing back the [Israeli] scientists and researchers in academic institutions around the world," Olmert said at the end of the meeting. Earlier, Olmert had made it clear that he had not planned to intervene in the university crisis, but had stepped in because of the memories of a three-month-long strike held by senior lecturers last year. At the start of the meeting, Olmert said that despite his wish to remain uninvolved and his insistence that "negotiations must be handled by both sides without [his] intervention… students must begin the academic year on Sunday." Responding to the news, a spokeswoman from the National Union of Israeli Students told The Jerusalem Post, "We're happy that school is going to begin as planned and that some of the budget, which was cut over the last few years, was returned to higher education. We also hope however, that now it will be possible to find a long-term solution to these problems, and that we won't have to deal with the threat of strikes every single year." Earlier in the day, the CUP released a statement thanking the prime minister, adding: "The CUP appreciates his involvement in bringing this crisis to its end." Jerusalem Post staff contributed to this report.