Rectors fear universities will be swamped due to transfers
Greece's university rectors are concerned about the repercussions of the previous government’s higher education overhaul, which is expected to result in the transfer of thousands of students to the country’s biggest universities, Kathimerini understands.
As a result of legislation drafted by the previous leftist education minister Costas Gavroglou, merging some technical colleges with universities and creating new faculties, an estimated 10,000 students are expected to join Greece’s largest universities.
Certain rectors have submitted proposals to the new leadership of the Education Ministry aimed at “rectifying” the situation and some may take their case to the Council of State, the country’s highest administrative court, Kathimerini understands.
“Of course there should be social policies, but these should not be enforced in a warped fashion as this leads to provincial universities losing out and the central universities being overburdened, with all the repercussions this brings for teaching and research,” the rector of the Athens University of Economics and Business, Emmanouil Giakoumakis, told Kathimerini.
For its part, the senate of Thessaloniki’s Aristotle University has said it will use all possible legal means to redress the situation. The university’s rector Nikos Papaioannou said the likeliest move would be an appeal to the Council of State.
