Livre representative Rui Tavares insisted this Wednesday at the Universities of Trás os Montes and Alto Douro to defend the new system of financing higher education and confirmed the party’s goal of abolishing tuition fees.
During the campaign for early legislative elections on March 10, the party leader participated in a debate on higher education at UTAD in Vila Real and spoke about Livre’s proposal for new funding for the sector based on three main principles.
The first component, he explained, will come from economic activity and will be allocated to a strategic fund for higher education, intended for the construction of laboratories, libraries and other long-term projects that are not compatible with the four years of the legislature and which will now have more complex funding in the European Union. Union.
This will ensure, Rui Tavares added, “that rectors and directors of polytechnic institutes do not ask to be given the opportunity to do what the country and the economy need.”
Then, under the second tier, operating costs will be covered by the state budget and, finally, by the higher education student support fund.
“Funded in part by those who have already graduated and are in the highest IRS income bracket, this is a way that allows us to eliminate tuition without saddled students with debt early in their active lives,” he defended.
Rui Tavares believes that to abolish tuition fees, a goal Livre wants to achieve, “it is necessary to have a plan.”
“It is not enough to say what you want, you need to show how,” he emphasized, considering that “it is unfair that students often abandon the course due to tuition fees, and this happens despite scholarships that cannot cover all the gaps.” .
In his opinion, “what might be fair is for people who have a public college education and are in the highest income group in the IRS to pay a portion into the college student fund, something like that 0.5%.” IRS” with which you can make a donation to the social sector.
Rui Tavares said that “more and more people believe that fees are not an adequate way to ensure fairness in the system and, in addition, they end up creating many problems for students who want to continue their studies.”
“Now we need to find a way, I believe this is what is needed, to bring about the abolition of tuition fees, and this is what Livre proposes, it is this difference that leads to negotiations on the management of progress and ecology, is that this the new model of financing higher education is based on three pillars,” he emphasized.
In this electoral action, Rui Tavares was accompanied by the leaders of the Vila Real and Bragança party lists, respectively Mila Simões de Abreu and Anabela Correia, who then dined in the canteen of the Trás os Montes Academy.
More than 10.8 million Portuguese are called to vote on March 10 to elect 230 members of the Assembly of the Republic.
18 political forces, 15 parties and three coalitions are competing in these elections.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
I’m Sandra Hansen, a news website Author and Reporter for 24 News Reporters. I have over 7 years of experience in the journalism field, with an extensive background in politics and political science. My passion is to tell stories that are important to people around the globe and to engage readers with compelling content.