The bell tolls for ‘perpetual’ students
It is not too late for so-called “perpetual students” at Greek universities to start considering their future.
A 2022 law imposed strict limits within which a student must graduate. For most institutions, who follow a four-year curriculum, the limit is six years for full-time students. A few schools, mainly technical universities, have five-year curricula: their full-time students must graduate within seven years from matriculation.
The 2022 law has a special provision for students who had exceeded the minimum time required for graduation at the end of the 2020-21 academic year. They were given more ample time to finish their studies: In fact they can double the time they spend acquiring a diploma. Thus, students within that category in four-year programs have to graduate by the end of the 2024-25 academic year, and those in five-year programs by the end of the 2025-26 session.
A total of 333,741 students, just over 48% of all matriculated ones, are considered “perpetual” or “stagnating” – the term used by the Education Ministry and university administrations. The law is clear: Those not graduating within the allotted time will be expelled. The first cohort under pressure must earn their remaining credits by the end of this academic year.
Pressure is building to be more flexible in applying the law or scrap it altogether: University presidents are already reporting requests from local MPs and some are wary of an explosive reaction from activist students. There is a precedent: A previous law had set 2014 as the cutoff year for expulsion: The then conservative-socialist coalition government extended the deadline, and the leftist-led SYRIZA government that came to power in 2015 scrapped the provision altogether. The Education Ministry leadership insists the law will be applied in full.
