Treasury Seeks to End Tuition Funding for Professors’ Family Members
The Enforcement Unit in the Salary and Labor Agreements Division of the Finance Ministry has sent hearing letters to nine universities across the country, following suspected salary irregularities in the pay of senior academic staff members. The findings concern alleged salary anomalies and benefits for lecturers and their family members, amounting over the years to an estimated hundreds of millions of shekels. At the center of the review are broad tuition exemption and reimbursement arrangements granted to senior academic staff members, their spouses, their children, and in some institutions even to parents and/or family members of retired or deceased faculty members, in significant financial amounts.
It also includes funding tuition for a deceased lecturer’s family member until age 26 for undergraduate studies only. At most institutions, the funding was found to cover not only studies at the university itself, but also at other institutions of higher education. According to estimates, the amount of the alleged violation due to tuition funding for a lecturer’s family members could reach up to 3 million shekels a year at each university.
Officials in the Enforcement Unit said this is illegal conduct that has been taking place for decades, and the Finance Ministry intends to stop it: “Public funds are not intended to fund family members, and we will make sure the party is over. It turned out to be conduct that has gone on for decades.” They noted that according to the regulations, only the employee is entitled to receive tuition funding, not a spouse, children or parents, similar to state employees who may receive study support up to a ceiling of 90 percent.
During the review, it was found that some universities financed undergraduate, master’s and doctoral studies for the same family member. In other cases, the university paid for academic studies for lecturers’ family members even when they studied at another university. Enforcement officials were shocked to discover cases in which a family member of a lecturer from one university chose to study at Reichman University, where annual tuition amounts to tens of thousands of shekels.
It was also found that some universities funded additional expenses for family members, such as preparatory program studies, registration fees, student association payments and more. As part of the process, the universities were given the opportunity to present their position within 45 days.
The Committee of University Heads of Research Universities said: “Research universities operate lawfully in accordance with the collective wage agreements, which were fully approved by the Planning and Budgeting Committee and the authorized bodies in the Finance Ministry. We received the letter from the Salary Commissioner and are studying its contents.”
