Hebrew U to open academic year after week-long strike

The Hebrew University on Jerusalem on Thursday said it would end its week-long strike over a budgetary deficit after reaching an agreement with government authorities, paving the way for students to start the school year.

The university, along with the Planning and Budgeting Committee of the Council for Higher Education and the Finance Ministry, reached a deal on Thursday under which the university will reduce its spending by NIS 105 million ($27 million) this year and create a financial recovery plan to pay its debt.

In return, the Council for Higher Education will release the NIS 17 million ($4.4 million) allocated for the university which were frozen six months ago. The university will also receive NIS 70 million ($18 million) directly from the treasury.

The university is mired in debt amounting to nearly NIS 13 billion ($3.4 billion) over employees’ pensions.

Following the agreement, the university said that the academic year will open on Monday.

The institution announced the strike in October, saying in a statement that “at this point, it would be irresponsible to open the academic year while in a state of uncertainty as to the full budget at our disposal, and without a solution to the root budgetary problem”

At the time, the university said the postponement of the academic year was due to “unresolved issues in the ongoing negotiations with representatives of the government concerning the scope of its commitment to defray the university’s budgetary deficit resulting from the budgetary pension’s liability.”