Estonian universities have different visions on where to find the additional funds required for higher education, Land said.

"There are universities that are against the introduction of fee-paying higher education, i.e. co-payments, and there are universities that are not against it in principle. However, I believe that all universities want to have more discussion about what the long-term goals of our higher education system are," Land said.

"Estonia also has a number of different development plans. By 2035 we have the target of 110 percent productivity for the Estonian workforce, which is the average for the European Union. Today we have 77 percent, two years ago it was 84 percent. It has fallen. How do we achieve higher productivity and what is the role of higher education and research in this?  We need more discussion," Land said.

That the government is freezing money for higher education will mean fewer faculty members, Land said.

"The biggest expense line for universities is salaries – 70 percent on average. If Estonia is short of money to such a degree, we can't cut lecturers' salaries, because part of lecturers' salaries means that they have to ensure quality," Land said.

For students, this could mean a drop in teaching quality, Land said.

Aaviksoo pointed out that education is not something that should be understood as necessary or not for the state, but a way for people to be able to freely pursue their own interests.

"This idea that there are specialties that are necessary for the state and those that are useless – this is not the solution I would like to see. That would take Estonia back to a post-Soviet system, whereby some pay and others without money receive. It's a question of partial but general tuition fees, and that can be discussed. After all, most countries in the world use that," Aaviksoo said.

According to Land, Estonia also has the strategic goal of having 4.5 scientists and engineers per 1,000 inhabitants by 2035.

"Today it is around 2.5 and from here we can see who we need to drive our economy forward," Land said.

Land added that the Ministry of Education and Research's latest proposal is to introduce an administration fee of €500 a year for all students.

Aaviksoo said that €500 a year would not solve any problems in the long run, but would create a huge amount of additional bureaucracy.

"That may alleviate the problem of funds for universities for a few years, but it will not solve the problem of higher education in Estonia. We have structural problems. In other words, the division of disciplines. We continue to have a lot of duplication. We continue to have a disparity in the proportions of higher vocational education and university education, where the cost differential is three times that of other countries. There are a lot of problems, so this should be addressed as a whole. This kind of fire-fighting procedure of asking everyone to pay €500 – that is a bit self-deceptive," Aaviksoo said.

Land is also not in favor of eliminating duplications altogether. In his view that would create the risk of becoming a closed system, and you can only compare yourself with yourself.

"In Estonia, we still need academic competition or debate," Land said.

Land said that Estonia is committed to increasing the number of students enrolled in engineering, manufacturing and construction curricula. However, the question now is how Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech) will manage this if tuition fees or co-payments come in, as Estonia does not know what impact they will have. Land also said that student willingness to pay tuition fees is not high.

"Rather, students are against tuition fees, but again I think they are not, in principle, opposed to co-payment," Land said.

The Estonian Ministry of Education and Research organized a brainstorming session to come up with ideas of how to involve private money in higher education. This comes at a time when the state is freezing operating grants provided to universities from 2027-2030.

According to the scenario put forward by the Ministry of Education and Research, state funding for higher education will remain at €284 million in 2026 (the level agreed in the state budget strategy was €307 million) and there will be no increase in state support for higher education between 2027 and 2030.

Under this scenario, the share of higher education funding will start to fall below 1.1 percent of GDP from 2027 onwards. To avoid that happening, an additional €30 million would need to be found to fund the sector.

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