Students are assigned to student’s hostels without knowing what prices they will have to pay

Prices for student’s hostels of higher education institutions from Chisinau for the 2006/2007 study year have not been set yet, and the students are assigned without any idea of what are the prices compared to last year, Info-Prim Neo states. Only in the Technical University of Moldova sources have affirmed for our agency that the prices for accommodations in the student’s hostels have not changed, therefore the student will pay the same price from last year - MDL 600 per year. The situation is not yet clear with the other study institutions from Chisinau, students don’t have the slightest idea whether they will pay more – as the administration of the institutions claimed, less – as the government claimed or whether the taxes will remain the same. A IV year student of the State University, Alexandru Bejenaru, claims that if the prices will increase, unjustified change considering the state of the buildings, the students will face a difficult situation, as most of them have to pay for their studies, the prices for public transport increased, as well as many other resources. At the request of Info-Prim Neo, pro-rector for administrative issues of USM, Mihail Postolache refused to offer any information regarding the taxes for this year, claiming that it’s the Ministry of Education and Youth (MET) competence to offer such information. The pre-rector of economical and social activity of the Academy of Economical Studies, Igor Popovici believes the taxes for accommodations will be increased slightly. The cited source offered an estimate of MDL 1000 compared to the MDL 800 from last year, and has specified that the prices are set by a Government Disposal and only after that the study institutions are informed. Elena Petrov, consultant in the Office of higher education from within MET, declared that a project regarding this issue was discussed Wednesday, August 23, and the results will be made public only after the government approves them. The cited source stated that the new project will remove all differences from budgetary and non budget students, and the budget students will have to pay the whole amount instead of the 30% as before. Therefore, all students will have similar conditions, as “the situation of the students that pay the tuition fees is difficult as it is”, Elena Petrov affirmed Universities from Chisinau have over 27 thousand students, of which 7 thousand will have financial aid and the rest approx. 20 thousand will have to pay the tuition fees. The exact numbers will be known after September 1.