Remote exams due to student occupations
Move decided as a result of deans’ reluctance to halt faculty sit-ins by vocal minorities
Remote exams will be organized at institutions of higher education where it is not possible to take them in person due to student occupations, according to a decision taking at a meeting on Monday of university rectors.
Rectors were forced to make the decision in response to the inability of deans to prevent the occupation of faculties by a minority of students who are opposed to a government bill that will institutionalize non-state universities.
Rectors said the digital exam option will be down to individual faculties and lecturers due to the autonomy higher education institutions have under the law. Faculties and lecturers, they said, must “choose the most appropriate method of student assessment.”
“The priority for the rectors’ meeting is the smooth completion of the educational processes with the use of distance methods, if required. To this end, the higher education institutions, through decisions of their senates, will determine the available technical means and the optimal time frame,” a statement by the rectors said.
Until Monday, 164 out of 433 faculties were occupied at large universities. A new round of student assemblies is planned for Tuesday and Wednesday and it remains to be seen whether protests will escalate. Rectory authorities are on alert to notify police in case of a repeat of violent disruptions that have occurred at previous assemblies, when students against the occupation and academic authorities were threatened.
For its part, the senate of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) decided to hold online courses at those schools that have not completed the mandatory 13 weeks of teaching required for the completion of the winter semester and to conduct the winter semester exams remotely in those cases. The spring semester at NTUA will begin February 12.
The senate of the iconic institution stressed that “it is becoming obvious that the occupations only create obstacles to the entire range of the NTUA’s functions and, even worse, take away from the strong momentum that the institution demonstrates.” At the same time, it said, they are blatantly directed against the public university which is ultimately losing society’s support.
Kathimerini understands that Education Minister Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis, who attended Monday’s meeting, said that under the law, the senate has a binding authority to organize the exams, and the ministry has technical infrastructure that can be provided to the institutions.
