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“The Conference of Rectors of Lithuanian Universities has expressed its position and approved the ministry regarding changes in regulatory prices,” said Eugenijus Valatka, president of LURK and rector of Kaunas University of Technology (KTU), during a meeting of the Opposition Labor Party of the Seimas. faction with representatives of the higher education sector on Tuesday.
He said the Rectors Conference sees moments that need to be corrected, but these are more procedural and time-bound issues. According to E. Valatka, basically “the Conference of Rectors agrees that we should sit down and discuss the new financing model.”
During the meeting, the Minister of Education, Science and Sports, Jurgita Šiugždinienė, stated that the tuition fees should be equalized, because they differ up to nine times in different specialties, and expensive majors are not at all a mouthful for those who want to study in your own expense.
“There were eight study groups, the prices varied nine times, which really does not happen anywhere in normal European countries. It should be understood that today our children, if they want to study in different fields, be it aviation, technological sciences, arts, health, they pay really big sums, ”said J. Šiugždinienė.
“The financing model could greatly improve the situation, there should not be such big differences in tuition fees,” he said.
Eigirdas Sarkanas, president of the Lithuanian Students’ Union (LSS), stated that in principle, students also support the increase in tuition fees, but not at the expense of study availability.
“The overall ambition and goal of increasing funding per student is certainly welcome, and we have declared it as a Student Union and have proposed it, but in the current context of distance learning and exam preparation, increasing public funding by student at the The cost of access to studies really seems quite strange, ”said Sarkan.
The head of the student union also said that it was necessary to change the system of financing studies and supporting students, because studies are currently inaccessible for young people from low-income families, students are forced to work long hours to study , more than its peers in Europe.
The minister agreed that support is needed for students, as well as places in expensive specialties for children from families of low socioeconomic level, because “if the cost of studies is 1,500 or 6, this group does not care about the costs. students, it’s just unbearable. “
“And I agree, and I would not like to have to rush with decisions, but some were so mature that it would be unacceptable to postpone them for another four years,” summarized J. Šiugždinienė.
The government last week approved a proposal from the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports (MESM) to increase tuition fees.
The government has increased the coefficients for college and university tuition fees, as well as increased the price components for spending on student incentives, basic spending on goods and services.
At the same time, the price groups of university studies were reduced from 8 to 5, and the allocation of separate fields to them was clarified, thus comparing the prices of some studies.
ŠMSM points out that the prices of the most expensive studios reach more than 15 thousand. euros, the cheapest – less than 2 thousand. that is, they differ nine times. At that time, international practice, according to the ministry, shows that the differences in the different prices do not exceed two to three times.
Following these changes, the base rate for regulatory tuition fees at universities will increase to around € 12, to almost € 1,376, with higher university growth and around € 82 to € 1,275.
According to the MMSM, no additional budget expenditures will be needed this year, but a total of about 33.7 million will be needed for changes in five years from 2022. euros.
The Minister states that the decisions were made in order to increase state funding per student, thus raising the quality of studies, as currently study funding in Lithuania is one of the lowest among OECD countries and only partially covers the actual costs of organizing the study.
J. Šiugždinienė admits that with these decisions, the studies will be more expensive and paid. She emphasizes that the price of studies in the field of social sciences will be the one that will change the most, that is, the price will increase by 1.5 thousand. up to almost 3,000. According to the minister, students who have not been admitted to places financed by the state are currently opting for other studies several times more expensive.
The innovations will not be relevant to those who are already studying and will only take effect for students admitted as of this September.
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