The cabinet ministers will be asked today (Sunday) at their weekly meeting to approve an amendment to a previous government decision that designated a special budget to support Ariel University, and to convert the decision into a move to provide general support for institutions of higher learning, according to the Israel Hayom website.
The agenda of the meeting stated that "On October 24, 2021, the government adopted a resolution amending, among other things, the appendix to the resolution, in which the matters and amounts arising from coalition agreements received from the date of the decision to the date of amendment were updated, and an allocation of NIS 70 million for Ariel University was determined for 2021-2022."
"In light of Government Decision 666 regarding the establishment of the Planning and Budgeting Committee of the Council for Higher Education regarding the designation of funds on the basis of budgetary political agreements for certain bodies, and after a professional process carried out by the Ministry of Education to examine the suitability of the intended uses of the said budgets for the budget structure, it is proposed to amend the appendix to the decision so that the details of the designation will determine 'support for institutions of higher education' and the budget will be allocated in accordance with the decisions and the committee and its rules," the agenda stated.
According to the proposal to amend the decision, the budget in question will generally be allocated to the committee and will not be exclusive to Ariel University.
"The decision cannot be implemented in light of the government's decision to authorize the committee exclusively to budget for the higher education system," an opinion attached to the agenda of the cabinet meeting noted. "Therefore, it is proposed to allocate the aforementioned budget as support for institutions of higher education. The budget will be allocated for the addition of student quotas, in accordance with the decisions of the committee."
Education Ministry legal adviser Eilat Malakman clarified in the document that "the funds should not be reassigned at the request of the political entity with whom the political agreement was reached, which cannot be implemented."
