The challenges ahead for higher education

As the dust settles after Parliament passed the new education bill on non-state institutions of higher education on Friday, the major question is how this will impact Greece’s ultimate aspiration of becoming an education hub in the southeast Mediterranean.

Experts say it will depend on how many foreign universities will come and whether they will give a boost to Greece’s public universities, as high-quality higher education requires significant investment, strict operating criteria and a strong control mechanism.

Education Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis expects the first branch of a foreign university to start operating in 2025, with government officials positing there are already positive signals – Paris’ Sorbonne has expressed interest in creating a branch in cooperation with the French Institute and a well-known private school.

The intentions of universities with branches in other European and Asian countries such as Yale, Johns Hopkins, Duke, New York University, The Rochester Institute of Technology and the University of California (all based in the US) are also being explored.

“Greece is a small market. So either a foreign university will be established in Greece to attract students from the Middle East and Asia, or universities will be created focusing on a specific scientific discipline, such as archaeology and classical studies,” a professor at the Athens Law School told Kathimerini.

Meanwhile, the 33 colleges that now operate as branches of European universities will rush to ensure they meet the criteria to qualify as universities. According to industry players and based on the conditions laid out in the new law, six or seven colleges at most will receive university status.

Hailing the ratification of the bill, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis referred to “a radical breakthrough in Greek education.” “Greece can no longer wait, a captive to dogmas and anachronistic concepts,” he said, adding the legislation would have a knock-on effect on public universities. “More than 40,000 Greeks study abroad. We aim to enable young people to attend reputable international universities without needing to leave their homeland,” he said.

SYRIZA leader Stefanos Kasselakis accused the government of using the new law to serve business interests, while socialist PASOK leader Nikos Androulakis derided what he called a “pseudo-reform,” which “does not provide any comprehensive answers to the deadlocks in higher education.”

The fate of the government’s endeavor will also ultimately depend on the Council of State, Greece’s top administrative court, as the granting of the first operating license, as an administrative act, will no doubt be challenged. The challenge will seek the annulment of the administrative act, arguing that it is based on a law that violates Article 16 of the Greek Constitution.