(IsraelNN.com) The ministry issued a statement Monday promising to "provide a significant increase in funding to the higher education system budget for this coming year… with the aim of trying to advance the implementation of the full Shochat Committee Report in 2010 with the Planning and Budget Committee." 

The Committee of Heads of Universities in Israel had warned that the schools might not open the academic year on time if they did not receive additional funds with which to implement the Shochat Committee's recommendations.

According to the report, higher education is to receive an infusion of NIS 2.4 ($685 million) billion over a five-year period, funding which was meant to compensate for years of budget cuts in the past. The Shochat Committee had also recommended tuition hikes, but the measure was fiercely opposed by student bodies and a months-long student strike last year.

Tel Aviv University student union head Gil Goldenberg slammed the Finance Ministry for its economic policies despite the promise to increase funding.

He referred to the ministry's management over the past seven years as "a fiasco" that has caused a disruption in studies at the post-secondary education level for the last three years in a row.

The student union leader also called on recently-elected Kadima party chairwoman Tzipi Livni, whom he referred to as "the next prime minister," to take "immediate emergency measures" to increase government funding of the university system.

Livni has less than a month in which to complete the task of forming a coalition. If she fails to win enough support for a new government, President Shimon Peres will either have to hand the job over to someone else or call for new elections.