Hundreds of scholars 'held hostage' by the state

Greece is reeling from six years of recession. GDP has fallen by more than 20% and the official unemployment rate is close to 30%. Among young, well-educated Greeks, joblessness hit 56.5% in early 2013. But by far the most dramatic impact of austerity has been the ‘hostage situation’ it has created for around 750 lecturers still waiting to be appointed to a faculty two to four years after being elected, write academics Varvara Trachana and Stelios Gialis for the Guardian.

These scholars, all PhD holders with significant academic and research credentials (many with years of postdoctoral experience abroad), were evaluated during a long, demanding process and were elected to serve as faculty members. Instead they have been placed on a ‘waiting list’.

The government's accession to European Union and IMF demands to curtail public sector recruitment is effectively holding these young researchers hostage. In 2012, for the first time in decades, the Ministry of Education appointed no university professors. The last time it made a call for new faculty members was in 2010.
Full report on the Guardian site