New education legislation on state funding hailedas great reform

Education Minister Niki Kerameus described new legislation which will ensure that state funding for universities will depend on quality criteria as a “huge reform.”

Speaking to Skai TV on Saturday, the minister said that up until today there had never been an objective system designating which criteria universities must meet to receive funding.

“We propose that 80 percent of the funding be based on objective criteria such as the number of students, the geographical distribution of the departments and their number, and 20 percent on the basis of quality criteria such as research,” Kerameus said.

“We want to provide incentives for improvements and to make our universities even better,” she said, before clarifying that the quality criteria will be judged by an independent authority whose powers will be boosted in the new bill.

“There is a change of mind-set and a change of philosophy,” the minister said. The new legislation will be voted on in Parliament this week.