Universities’ extra €10 million may go towards heating

ERR 26 October 2022

High electricity prices are leaving universities in Estonia worried as expense budgets are depleted and administrators are hard-pressed to find ways of paying bills. The additional €10 million (US$9.9 million) the government has allocated for universities could simply go towards paying for heat, writes Sandra Saar for ERR.

Riina Uska, development director for real estate for the Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech), said bills have grown drastically since last year. “Things are looking quite dire,” she said. TalTech’s August bills were double compared to July. Estonian University of Life Sciences Director of Administration Toivo Ilves said energy bills are up 50%, while Katrin Saks, development vice-rector for Tallinn University, said power and heating expenses for the first eight months of the year are in the vicinity of a million euros, and current calculations suggest another million will be spent by the year’s end. The budget had €1.2 million for energy expenses.

Universities are still discussing how to cover the deficit. Ilves said it needs to be a political decision. “It is clear that the university will not come up with the money to pay those bills.”
Full report on the ERR site

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