The creation of non-state universities in Greece is the first serious reform of the state in recent decades

Education Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis recently introduced a bill on the creation of non-state universities, which is the first major reform in the state in recent decades.

In fact, the obvious came true after several years of delay. The law is called “Strengthening the state university – a framework for the work of non-profit branches of foreign universities” and consists of 200 articles. According to the government’s plan, it will be immediately submitted to parliament and adopted in February.

From September 2025, the minister announced, applications for admission to non-state universities will begin. The Minister presented the main provisions, saying that in order for there to be a regime of equality between public and private universities in terms of the admission of Greek students to non-state universities, candidates will have to “catch up” with the minimum admission base for their specialty during the Panhellenes examinations, and this will be the only a link in the access system between public and private universities.

As for teachers, incompatibility will arise here: they will not be able to work at a state university and at the same time teach at a non-state university. The minister did not disclose the names of the universities with which negotiations began on creating branches. However, he gave examples of foreign universities that opened their branches in other countries: Sorbonne, Yale, Johns Hopkings, Duke, New York University, Rochester Institute of Technology.

The degrees will be certified by the seal of the Ministry of Education and will not require recognition by the ΔΟΑΤΑΠ. The Minister stated that the Open University will be autonomous and have a system of governance like all other public universities, and that there will be joint postgraduate courses between public and foreign universities. Among other things, it is assumed that:

• Institutions will have greater flexibility to create, merge and abolish departments with the consent of the Independent Higher Education Authority.
• Students will also be able to enter non-state universities through the Panhellenic exams, having achieved a minimum passing score in their specialty, rather than in their department.
• A mechanism for financing innovative ideas has been created.
• Public higher education is freed from bureaucracy.
• Modernization of the Thrace Democritus University by creating new faculties and new study programs.

The position of Athens News is clearly in favor of creating non-state universities, for we believe that public institutions of higher education have deviated from their role since independence and that the Left is largely to blame for this deviation, as well as the New Democracy governments that first tolerated and then “agreed” on the flimsy and bankrupt education system based on party-popular basis. This means the following: if the leadership of the university supports a certain party, students, under pain of failing the tests, must also support and vote for this party.

The emergence of non-state universities in a country where the state prevented the dissemination of knowledge among those who did not succeed in national or state examinations played a decisive role in leaving the post-1970s generations uneducated, with all the ensuing consequences, while when there was a technological revolution that public universities could not keep up with.

The disastrous framework law of the Papandreou government, when students were given the opportunity to become co-owners (!) of universities, became the final “tombstone” of higher education.

The only thing that can be faulted about this particular Pyrrakakis law is that it should have come into existence at least 20 or 30 years ago: either in the government of Konstantinos Mitsotakis (father of the current Prime Minister) or in the government of Kostas Karamanlis.

The very fact that all these decades only the rich could pay for the education of their offspring in foreign universities, while the vast majority received no or low-quality education in various unrecognized ones (they are not recognized in Greece, but their diplomas are recognized outside the country) ” colleges,” speaks for itself.

With the creation of non-state universities, the competition for public higher education institutions, something that has long been lacking in the Greek education system. And access to them should also be immediately “opened,” even for a minimal fee.

G. Babiniotis’s proposal that high school graduates will be able to enroll only with a certificate of secondary education is ethical and democratic, and will maximally contribute to healthy competition with non-state universities.

Finally, it should be noted that if the money allocated by Greek families (estimated at more than 50 billion euros) after 1974 for the education of their children abroad had remained in Greece, there would not even be a justification for the deficit balance that sent us to the memorandum in 2010 year.

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