Bill reinstating university asylum fuels tense reactions

An Education Ministry bill which is aimed at overhauling Greek universities and technical colleges and which goes to public consultation today provoked vehement political debate on Thursday.

The bill aims to increase the role of students in the management of universities and, controversially, will make it more difficult for police to enter university grounds, essentially reinstating an asylum law that the previous conservative administration had revoked.

According to the new bill, any police intervention would require the approval of the council of rectors, which will also include a student representative.

“The government is continuing its disastrous work in education,” New Democracy’s shadow education minister Niki Kerameos remarked.

She referred to “practices that take us back in time in a plan that… brings back an outdated and dangerous view of university asylum and disrupts management in an attempt to impose party control on the institutions.”