"If the funding of universities, including Tallinn University, is to stay on the same level as it is now, it is clear we won't be able to offer programs in Estonian in the same way," Tallinn University's development vice-rector Katrin Saks said.

Saks said that the university is critically analyzing all programs, but mostly those curricula that don't belong to their area of responsibility. "Information science isn't in our field. This means that the Ministry of Education and Research isn't funding the program," Saks said.

Preliminarily, admission to information science will be removed for a year. Saks said, however, that the faith of this and other programs is questionable. "We want to give it a chance, but something needs to be done with the high education crisis," Saks said.

There are more problems with the information science program. The drop-out rate in the curriculum is very high, with only three or four students graduating in recent years. Not all of them go work in the area either. "When we talk about closing courses, we won't be starting with our strongest and best curricula," Saks said.

She added that closing one or two programs won't save the university. "Currently, around €100 million is missing from the high education. This can't be solved with little cosmetics," Saks admitted.

Saks hopes that money can be found in the state budget to improve higher education so that students' contributions should not be increased.

The Estonian Librarians Association is worried about Tallinn University cutting admission to the information science program due to needing the competence of highly educated library and information science specialists to support the people in a rapidly digitalizing information environment, ERR News wrote.

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