Government to table private university bill before year end

Greek Education Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis said on Friday 27 October that the government would present legislation allowing the operation of private universities before the end of the year, reports eKathimerini.

The minister said the state university remains “the flagship” of tertiary education in Greece. “We cannot, however, continue to preserve in the country a global exception, and a peculiar state monopoly on Greek tertiary education. This is what we are trying to resolve,” he said in an interview with state-run broadcaster ERT. Pierrakakis said the ministry would table draft legislation in parliament immediately after presenting it to the cabinet before the end of the year “to move quickly and take advantage of the great potential that we have not tapped into for so many years for various reasons”.

Earlier in October, Kathimerini reported that the ministry was expected to use a 2020 ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union to allow private universities in the country, despite Article 16 of the Constitution expressly stating that tertiary education establishments must be public.
Full report on the eKathimerini site