TLÜ elected Priit Reiska as rector on Wednesday, replacing Tõnu Viik, whose term is ending.

"I am certainly that kind of rector who says that higher education should be free, but simply stating it out loud is not enough – we need a more well-thought-out strategy. We need to involve upper secondary students, university students and, through the council of rectors, other universities as well," Reiska said after the election.

Before being elected, Reiska had served as director of TLÜ's Institute of Natural and Health Sciences (Lodus- ja terviseteaduste instituut), and is a distinguished professor of science education.

Reiska defeated two other candidates running for the post, over two rounds: Semiotics Professor Indrek Ilbrus failed to receive enough votes in round one to make the round two run-off, which ended up being between Reiska and TLÜ Vice-Rector for Research Katrin Niglas. Reiska received 69 votes in that run-off, Niglas 43.

Reiska also told ERR after the ballot that university funding is a vital issue.

"We just heard on Monday (link in Estonian) that the Ministry of Education and Research wants to allocate additional funding to higher education, but primarily to professional higher education rather than universities. We need to look at what is needed and for what purpose. Certainly, the goal of universities is to train top specialists in line with labor market needs, but universities also have another major goal: we must provide an academic education and shape critical thinking in people," he said.

"We must shape them into thinkers with a capital 'T', so that later they themselves can guide society and create jobs for themselves. I believe this is extremely important and we cannot overlook it," he added.

The overall number of potential university students will go up in the coming years, Reiska said, in line with the number of high school graduates projected to grow by up to 20 percent.

"As a country, Estonia must not miss out on this opportunity, because it may be the only similar upswing we will see for decades. We have a generation to whom we can provide a very good higher education, and we must find the resources for it," Reiska went on.

Reiska was elected in a ballot held on Wednesday from 2 p.m., and by an electoral body composed of all members of the university's council and senate, its tenured professors, and student representatives elected by the student union.

Reiska, 56, is a graduate of Tallinn Pedagogical University and obtained a doctorate in physics education from the University of Kiel in 1999, with a central focus on making the learning of natural sciences more comprehensible and effective. He also worked as a researcher at the University of Kiel and as a senior researcher and later professor at TLÜ, and has held several leadership roles at the university for over 20 years.

His term as rector starts May 15.

Higher education in Estonia is generally free at public universities for bachelor's and master's degree courses, where the language of instruction is Estonian, plus PhD programs too. Tuition fees often apply to courses run by private universities and those taught in languages other than Estonian.

Negotiators at last spring's Reform-Eesti 200 coalition talks agreed that the first Estonian-language higher education degree will continue to be free of charge.

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