Trade unionists have warned of a possible collapse of Palestinian universities against the backdrop of the financial crisis that could cause a large deficit in the higher education budget and lead to its eventual suspension.
The president of the Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees said that “universities can no longer meet its financial commitments toward their workers,” pointing out that the money owed to employees and considered now as debt is increasing every day, “without a glimmer of hope that the financial situation will improve and [the debt] will be settled.”
In a press statement, a copy of it which was received by Quds Press on Wednesday 19 August, Dr Amjad Barham pointed out that “the financial crisis will lead to universities becoming unable to allocate budgets for development, which will thereby reduce their ability to maintain the required high standard of education.”
He noted that the most important cause of this crisis is that in the past five years the government has not shown commitment to paying universities’ dues as previously approved in the budget, adding that the funds transferred to universities in this period does not exceed 10 per cent of approved allocations.
Barham appealed to all stakeholders, especially the Ministry of Higher Education and the government, to work toward transferring all dues owed to universities so as to “preserve education institutions and protect them from collapse, and to enable them to continue to perform their noble mission of providing high standards of higher education to the Palestinian people.”