For the first time in years, studies at the higher education institutions began Sunday with no strike on the horizon. The rare event was noted by Prof. Manuel Trajtenberg, the head of the Higher Education Council's Committee for Planning and Budgets (known by its Hebrew acronym Vatat).
"This is a festive day for higher education, in that the academic year began without threats and strikes – something that has not happened in recent years,” Trajtenberg told the government ministers at the weekly cabinet meeting, in a joint presentation with Education Minister Gidon Saar. “Marking the start of the academic year with a government discussion symbolizes the right track in my view,” he added.
280,000 students opened the 5770 (2009/10) academic year in the higher education institutions – 3% more than last year, in which 272,000 students were enrolled. About 63% of the students are enrolled in colleges and the remaining 37% in universities.
Gilad Bar-Gil, the Chairman of the Student Union at Bar-Ilan University, told Arutz Sheva's Yoni Kempinski that the students intend to fight the Finance Ministry over the high cost of studies, and said that the students' economic hardships make their studies less efficient.