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Academic year to open as planned following budget talks
Academic year to open as planned following budget talksUniversities to receive over half a billion shekels to cover costs; Olmert intervenes despite desire to stay out of negotiations.
Published 10.30.08, 11:38AM
The 2008-2009 academic year will open as planned on Sunday after government officials and university heads came to an agreement regarding the year's budget.
Fears that the year would not open on time emerged after the Council of University Presidents threatened to strike until a solution was met.
The agreement was made during a meeting between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Finance Minister Ronnie Bar-On, Education Minister Yuli Tamir and the university presidents. Olmert instructed Bar-On and Tamir to oversee the allocation of 465 million shekels. In addition, NIS 50 million allocated to development needs 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 talks over the looming university strike, but in the shadow of a three-month-long strike held by senior lecturers last year, the prime minister stepped in.
At the opening of meeting Olmert said that despite his wish to remain uninvolved, and insistence that "negotiations must be handled by both sides without [his] intervention… students must begin the academic year on Sunday."
On Wednesday evening, nearly 500 students and faculty members protested near the Knesset.
