For the first time in my life, I had the opportunity this summer to participate in the admissions committee for the political science program at the University of Tartu. It was an eye-opening experience as I witnessed firsthand how far inequality has progressed in Estonian society. Our admissions committee had its criteria for conducting interviews and evaluating candidates, and ultimately, there was no avoiding it – the gap between stronger and weaker candidates was stark and clear. Almost without exception, those who lost out in this contrast were from rural areas and did not speak Estonian as their first language.

This is not really news, as Eurostudent surveys have confirmed for years that access to higher education in Estonia is among the most unequal in Europe, although before the Soviet occupation, it was one of the most equal.

This inequality is not limited to accessing higher education but also extends to staying in higher education: the most likely dropouts come from the most vulnerable segments of society, namely Russian-speaking, special needs, first-generation and economically insecure students.

Against this background, the state no longer seems to be "a pledge to current and future generations for their social progress and general benefit," as promised in the preamble of our constitution.

On the one hand, for years, there has been a failure to provide equal opportunities for children and young people across Estonia, allowing the uniform school system to crumble, particularly from the perspective of rural and Russian schools.

On the other hand, the absurdly inadequate social security system for higher education has not been improved; student loans are among the most expensive in Europe, and scholarships remain low and almost inaccessible to those in need. The result is that the obligation to study full-time (40 hours a week) comes with the necessity to work alongside it, which about two-thirds of students do.

In this context, one would have expected universities, including the University of Tartu, to advocate for educational and social reforms on behalf of both their current and future students, enabling everyone to develop their full potential and devote themselves to their studies without fear.

With the support of students, universities managed to secure in the previous coalition agreement 1 percent of GDP for research funding and 1.5 percent of GDP for higher education funding. If ever there was a moment in the history of re-independent Estonia to stand in solidarity with students, it is now, with the main demands for higher education reform either fulfilled or in the process of being fulfilled, or at least to seek peace and cooperation with them to consolidate these gains.

Instead, the University of Tartu, led by Rector Toomas Asser, continued the same refrain it has been singing with varying intensity since at least 2019, wanting to return to tuition fees. Once again, students had to debate making an already broken system even worse with tuition fees, instead of discussing ways to make it more accessible.

Analyses over the years have shown that even introducing tuition fees for higher education would not fill the existing funding gap and would exacerbate existing problems. But no, apparently higher education is still too open: a student still needs to come from a city, an elite school and a family of wealthy, highly educated parents.

Those who feared the worst from the new coalition agreement could breathe easier, as previous agreements remained in place and tuition fees for Estonian-language curricula would only be introduced "in certain cases" (whatever that means). At the same time, this is just the latest example of the long-standing "salami tactics" towards paid higher education.

The fact that tuition fees are not yet universal and that initially only €500 per year has been discussed deceives no one. In England, it also started at a thousand pounds a year and quickly multiplied, now reaching £9,000 a year. All this is just a springboard for future expansions and increases in tuition fees, as what has been agreed upon is far from a solution to the necessary funding shortfall in higher education.

About ten years ago, Estonia still had a great ambition to become like the Nordic countries, which was occasionally reflected in higher education reform, although only halfway: education was mostly free, but the necessary social security for students and stable funding for universities were not provided.

By now, it seems we have given up on this goal. Instead, we are moving towards becoming like the USA – a society where education is a privilege of the rich, and social divides are deeper than anywhere else in the West. It seems that for future generations, the state's pledge has been canceled, if not immediately, then no longer in the distant future.

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