Dozens of students demonstrate near Haifa

Dozens of students from Oranim College demonstrated Sunday at Yagur Junction near Haifa against the Shochat Committee for reforms in higher education. The students were planning to hold a lecture at the junction entitled: "Tamir is throwing us onto the streets." Meanwhile, student unions resumed their strikes in higher educational institutions across the country, calling for the committee to be dismantled. The committee's mandate includes examining merit-based pay scales for university lecturers, setting tuition policy and dealing with the "brain drain" of researchers leaving Israel for better-funded institutions in the United States and Britain. Students and lecturers have claimed the committee's members are beholden to the Finance Ministry, and that its recommendations were pre-determined and would involve the 'privatization' of higher education in Israel