Universities may back out of commitments if funding is cut

A little over a year ago, the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research signed an administrative agreement with university rectors that would increase operating subsidies for universities by 15% annually for the next four years. Now however, the possibility of reducing this increase to 10% is being discussed during the state budget negotiations, writes Veronika Uibo for ERR.

If such cuts are implemented, universities have suggested the possibility of reneging on some of their prior commitments to the state.

“We are in a situation where, as the state goes back on its commitments, we would have to withdraw from the commitments we are able to withdraw from. Unfortunately, these are not commitments that we made decades ago; they are commitments which were made recently. ... For Tallinn University, the new commitments concern the increased training of teachers and support for the transition to teaching in Estonian. These are the things we need most,” said Tallinn University Rector Tõnu Viik.
Full report on the ERR site