Tamir: Treasury conducting 'wild campaign' against higher education system

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Education Minister Yuli Tamir on Friday accused the Treasury of conducted a "wild campaign" against the higher education system and exacerbating the crisis. In an interview with Israel Radio, Tamir warned that Israel's colleges and universities were on the verge of collapse. She expressed her disappointment at the decision not to invite student representatives to this Sunday's cabinet discussion on the Shochat Committee report and said that she had asked Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to change the decision but was yet to receive a response. "It is a violation of an agreement reached with the students and anyway, it is a unnecessary argument with them because the finance minister knows that tuition fees will not go up in the next two years," said the education minister. Tel Aviv University Student Union chairman Gil Goldenberg said that the government was blatantly braking an agreement which obligates it not to discuss the Shochat Committee reforms without prior agreement with the students. He said student unions across the country were planning protests marches as well as a High Court petition.