Another reform awaits the students
The Ministry of Education and Science (MoES) is nurturing plans to return to the previously valid fixed fee for studies. However, politicians in the opposition warn that confusion will arise as a result of yet another reform of higher education, which will also require millions of expenses, Lithuanian News reports.
Abandoning the division of students into those who pay for higher education and those who do not pay for it is foreseen in the program of this Government. Students are afraid of the fixed tuition fee, fearing to lose their fully state-funded study places.
According to Vice Minister of Education and Science Rimantas Vaitkaus, returning to a fixed tuition fee is encouraged by the fact that currently almost half of the country's students are forced to pay the full tuition fee for higher education. "We would like the tuition fee to be reduced and not the entire tuition fee to be paid, but a fixed fee, with the rest of it being covered by state funds," R. Vaitkus told LŽ.
The government program stipulates that the annual tuition fee should be "no more than one average monthly salary". It would turn out that the semester would cost students more than 1 thousand. litas It is planned that only well-performing students will be exempted from this fee. The SMM plans to introduce a universal annual tuition fee, which would be the same for students of all study programs, starting in 2015.
