The head of the higher education policy and lifelong learning department at the Ministry of Education and Research, Margus Haidak, explained that this cut would have the least impact on universities.

"When planning the cuts to higher education for 2025 and subsequent years, discussions with university rectors led us to try to preserve as much growth in operational support as possible, opting instead to cut specific-purpose funding from earlier periods. Theoretically, universities can offset these reductions with the growth in operational support in the future," Haidak said.

"Doctoral performance bonuses have been in place for quite some time, but even with this measure, we have never reached the goal of 300 doctoral degrees awarded annually. We decided that this measure likely does not harm the higher education system if it is discontinued."

Tallinn University Vice-Rector for Research Katrin Niglas noted that the university supports a solution that provides more decision-making freedom for universities.

"The question is whether universities are given less unrestricted funding and whether targeted funding continues, or if targeted funding is eliminated, allowing more freedom to use operational support. We tend to favor the idea of having more operational support," Niglas said.

Meanwhile, University of Tartu Vice-Rector for Research Mari Moora said that although they understand the state's need to make cuts, they would not have done so at the expense of doctoral programs.

"We will need to find internal reserves. I understand the state needs to save money, but I don't think it was appropriate to cut funding for doctoral studies. It's somewhat alleviated by the fact that we recently had a doctoral study reform, which has slightly reduced the amount of classroom work. This has allowed us to cut some costs related to teaching," Moora acknowledged.

Next year, the ministry will pay universities a doctoral performance bonus of €1,000 per doctoral graduate instead of the current €11,000. The year after that, these bonuses will be discontinued entirely. Universities have used these funds for purposes such as rewarding supervisors and covering the costs of foreign opponents. According to Moora, faculty members may no longer be motivated to supervise doctoral dissertations, which could lead to a decline in the number of doctoral students.

"We all understand that society needs more people with doctoral degrees in various stages and sectors – not just in universities and research institutes, but also in higher leadership positions," Moora explained.

At the same time, Katrin Niglas expressed concern about what will happen in 2027 when operational support is frozen.

"Through the council of rectors, we are fighting to ensure that our operational support as a whole is not frozen, as current plans suggest. The message is that we [universities] need to earn even more ourselves to provide the same level of Estonian-language higher education."

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