2015 Budget Proposal is extremely severe for higher education and … – iOnline

The National Union for Higher Education (Snesup) today defended the proposed State Budget for 2015 put scientific and higher education institutions in a “very serious situation”.

For the union president, António Vicente, the proposal provides that a cut of 8.4% for higher education, is a “aggravate a set of cuts that between 2010 and 2014 involved actual losses to institutions in the order of 30%. ”

“The Government did not hear the warnings of rectors and presidents of polytechnics who warned for failure to support more cuts, and now institutions will have extreme difficulty performing this budget,” he said.

In the case of science, António Vicente said “the curious case” of increased funding for the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), at 5.5%, at a time when the assessment to scientific institutions are withdrawing public funding to about half of the centers that benefited him, in danger of closing for lack of funds.

“This means that we will have more concentrated funding in fewer institutions. We doubt that this translates into more research and scientific production. It is an extremely worrying situation, “he argued.

The 2015 budget allocation for higher education and social action decreases 8.4% compared to 2014, reveals the proposed state budget tabled in Parliament.

According to the report, the specific allocation for higher education and social action singled out for next year is € 990.5 million, € 91.3 million less compared to the 2014 estimate.

Spending on higher education and social action represent 27.7% of state expenditure for the sector of science and higher education.

The document delivered in parliament points to the sector in 2015, a budget of € 2.2455 billion, 0.1% higher compared to the 2014 estimate, the equivalent of over 3.2 million.

The increased allocation is done at the expense of science, says the document.

“The impact of sectoral measures” in science and higher education budget program “is minimal,” since “slight reduction” of budget allocations for universities and polytechnics, 1, 5%, “is compensated for by strengthening the science, which, indirectly, also strengthens the institutions of higher education,” the report said.