Regional universities in search of students

Some 20 departments of Greek universities have had a low, even single-digit, number of admissions in recent years due to the low demand from students participating in the Panhellenic entry examinations. 

Indicatively, in 2023 about 60 departments admitted less than 50 freshmen. Senior officials involved in the formulation of government higher education policy reckon the very small number of new students is expected to cause significant restructuring in higher education, particularly in regional higher education institutions, in conjunction with the operation of the first non-state universities beginning in September 2025.

According to mathematician Stratos Stratigakis, who processed the data of the national examinations, up to 10 senior high school candidates were admitted to 18 regional university departments in 2023 to study subjects with low demand from the labor market. 

Indeed not a single candidate was admitted to the University of Patras’ Department of Sustainable Agriculture in Agrinio.

However, as Stratigakis told Kathimerini, a series of paradoxes demonstrates the absence of a strategy for the development of Greek higher education. The Department of Sustainable Agriculture opened for the first time in 2023! So the question is why the senate of the University of Patras proceeded to create such a department at a time when there is a department with a related subject at the same university, but in another city. This is the Department of Agriculture in Mesolongi, which also accepted a very small number of candidates in 2023, only 20. 

“The departments of the geotechnical sector are not attractive, despite its importance to the country’s economy. On the other hand, although the departments of agronomy, forestry etc are in low demand, new ones are being created in these fields rather than in other scientific fields with high demand,” Stratigakis said.

The conversation on the academic reform of departments will begin, a senior official told Kathimerini. And this will not move in the logic of closing departments, but in changing the scientific direction of departments with few admissions. 

The decisions, according to the same official, will also be influenced by the introduction of non-state universities, the first of which are expected to be licensed within the next 12 months. The non-state universities, which will operate in Attica and Thessaloniki, are expected to “steal” students from public universities, which will be forced to readjust the disciplines of the low-demand departments they currently have.