Birzeit University students in fee rise protest

Students at Palestine’s Birzeit University have been on strike for 12 days, protesting against the rise in tuition fees imposed by the university administration, Quds Press has reported.

Dozens of the students marched on Sunday from the university to the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. They called on the government to fulfil its financial pledges to the university.

The Head of the Student Council, Ahmed Al-Ayish, said that the administration of Birzeit has been raising tuition fees for several years, trying to overcome its financial deficit from the students’ pockets without seeking a “serious” solution for the problem. He told Quds Press that the students gave their university an ultimatum to resolve the problem, noting that the charge per hour was increased by $6 for new students and $3 for existing students. The council, he insisted, is ready to deal with any “real” initiative.

The university’s Dean of Students Affairs, however, said that no initiatives would be proposed before the strike was called off. Mohamed al-Ahmad said that the university was obliged to raise tuition fees in order to solve its financial problems. He pointed out that 1,300 students did not pay fees and the government did not meet its financial responsibilities.

The dean blamed the student council for staging the strike. “We are paying the price of our democracy,” he claimed, and called the council, rather disparagingly, “a group of students.”

Meanwhile, the head of the university’s employee union, Salem Thawabeh, said that he is conducting discussions with all student factions in order to reach a deal and end the crisis. According to Quds Press, though, no details or expectations have yet emerged about such a deal. It noted that both the student council and university administration are waiting to see who will back down first.