University state aid to take account of global rankings

Greek universities will have to mind their international evaluation rankings to maximize the government aid they receive, starting next year.

The universities’ international rankings will be one of the 15 evaluation criteria to receive 20% of regular government funding from 2022.
A ministerial decision defining criteria and indicators of quality and achievements for the distribution of public subsidies in universities is expected to be published in the coming days. In the section that evaluates the “continuous improvement of the basic academic activities of Higher Educational Institutions” is the position of each HEI in international evaluations by reputable rating agencies.

Each university’s ranking will be selected based on those of international rating agencies QS, ARWU, THE, SCImago, GS and Webometrics. There will be a point system depending on the ranking: a position among the top 300 globally will receive 120 points, 100 points will be awarded for ranks between 301-500, 80 for 501-800, 60 for 801-1,200 and 40 points for rankings 1,201 and lower.

Each classification agency assigns different weights to different criteria.

The proposed evaluation system has been severely criticized by some academics, especially on the Left. They argue that it does not take into account critical quality parameters of institutions and that part of the shortcomings of institutions that affect their ranking (e.g. number of academic personnel) are the result of government policies.