NordenBladet —
The Riigikogu heard the replies to three interpellations.
Prime Minister Kaja Kallas replied to the interpellation concerning higher education funding (No 112), submitted by Members of the Riigikogu Helir-Valdor Seeder, Mihhail Lotman, Heiki Hepner, Priit Sibul, Andres Metsoja, Üllar Saaremäe, Urmas Reinsalu, Sven Sester, Aivar Kokk, and Tarmo Kruusimäe.
The interpellators pointed out that a significant part of university funding depended on the management agreements signed with the state. These agreements should be signed during the first quarter of this year, but the decisions on higher education funding in the upcoming years would be made later in the year during the debate on the state budget strategy.
The interpellators asked why the government had done nothing to avoid the situation where uncertainty rules as the agreements expire.
Kallas explained that the management agreements set out the main obligations of the universities for the term of the agreement as well as the conditions for allocating funds from the state budget to meet these. The agreements for 2019–2021 obligated the Ministry to allocate activity support to the universities every calendar month in 2022 in the amount of one twelfth of the volume of activity support in the previous year, i.e. equal to the total volume of the previous year, until the 2022–2024 management agreements and the 2022 financial agreements are signed. “Universities can continue to fulfil their duties under the law with the funds allocated to them, but they have refused to assume additional duties without additional funds,” Kallas said.
Prime Minister emphasised the importance of higher education. Since 2013, with the exception of 2017, the activity support for higher education has grown from the previous year. While in 2017 the activity support for universities amounted to EUR 141.1 million, in 2022 it is EUR 165 million. This is complemented by additional targeted grants, for example to support regional studies, create extra student places in educational sciences and health care, and provide investment support.
Prime Minister promised that the government would take the options for increasing funding for higher education into account when proceeding the 2023–2026 budget strategy.
Kallas expressed the need to keep the spotlight on increasing higher education funding because without a high quality and sufficiently comprehensive higher education it is impossible to make our society more knowledge intensive. “In order to ensure the sustainability of higher education in Estonia, we need to continue the discussion on higher education funding with our sights on the longer perspective,” Prime Minister stressed.
She added that when considering the responsibility of the state and private individuals in covering the costs of higher education, we would need to take into account the impact of these choices on the access to higher education, motivation of students in enrolling into higher education, covering the labour needs in Estonia, as well as the personal rewards related to acquiring a higher education in the context of socio-cultural benefits. “I can personally confirm that we will keep the one percent of the GDP that is earmarked for research and development,” Kallas affirmed.
Prime Minister also replied to the interpellation concerning the Whistleblower Protection Bill (No. 114).
Minister of Education and Research Liina Kersna replied to the interpellation concerning elimination of basic school final exams threshold (No. 118).
During the open microphone, Kalle Grünthal (Estonian Conservative People’s Party), Jaak Juske (Social Democratic Party), Riina Sikkut (Social Democratic Party) and Peeter Ernits (Estonian Conservative People’s Party) took the floor.
The sitting ended at 9.06 p.m.
Source: Parliament of Estonia