Ramallah - Arab Today
Birzeit university in Ramallah
Birzeit university will start the fall semester on Monday after the students union and university administration reached a final agreement to end a crisis which began in early September. A spokesman for the Fatah-affiliated
student bloc, Haytham Abu Radwan, told Ma\'an that the agreement was reached after the university administration decided not to adopt a fixed exchange rate for Jordanian Dinars for student tuition fees.
The council decided to add 3 dinars to the tuition per credit for new undergraduate students and 1 dinar per credit for current undergraduate students.
The tuition fees for postgraduate students will remain unchanged.
Students began strike action earlier in September to protest an increase in university tuition fees.
The protests had delayed the beginning of the 2013-14 academic year.
Cuts to the Palestinian Authority budget have led to a fewer funds available to Palestinian academic institutions like Birzeit University, and as a result University authorities have been scrambling to find alternative sources of funding.
Source: Maan