“From the beginning of the 2025/2026 academic period and in any case until the end of this government period, we will be ready to see the branches of foreign institutions operating in Greece” he told ALPHA TV and journalist Antonis Schroiter Minister of Education, Religion and Sports Kyriakos Pierrakakis.

The Minister of Education described the government’s decision to proceed with this “historical reform” as “a safe and solid step” and in relation to possible appeals to the Supreme Court and reiterated that “with the bill for the establishment of Non-State-Non-Profit universities in the country we cease to be the only country on the planet without non-State Universities”, while referring to the current constitutional provisions he estimated that “the Constitution is constantly evolving and needs to talk with reality”.

Mr. Pierrakakis pointed out that “after 2020 and the critical change that occurred in EU law on the occasion of a case concerning Hungary, the way has been opened to transfer to Greece the possibility of establishing and operating Non-State-Non-Profit Universities, as branches of foreign universities. Next, we expect that by revising Article 16 of the Constitution, we will be able to ensure the possibility of foreign institutions to settle in the country and establish branches of their universities on their own, as happens all over the planet, without any problems.”

The minister clarified a series of terms and conditions for the establishment and operation of Non-State-Non-Profit HEIs stating that “at least three schools will be needed to examine their file, the establishment criteria will be the strictest in the whole of Europe, as we have studied what applies in each country and we have chosen the strictest version of the criteria package, the minimum number of professors will be 30 professors with a PhD, the responsibility for examining the files both in the building infrastructure and in the curriculum but also in the competence of the professors will has the independent authority of higher education, the state has no reason to interfere in the functioning of these institutions”.

Mr. Pierrakakis overcame the very large Greek teaching diaspora abroad from which the country expects to find professors and teaching staff for this new form of HEI that it will institute, while he revealed that there are already on the table foreign HEIs that are interested in investing in Greece establishing their own branches, a development in which the Greek teaching diaspora which is everywhere and controls major universities abroad has also contributed significantly.

The Minister of Education brought back the example of Cyprus, insisting on the agreement of all the political forces of the island in the establishment of non-State HEIs and emphasized that the transformation of the island into a regional educational center, as Greece aspires to become, has added to the GDP of Cyprus a 6%, while he noted that in the first phase, it is necessary to stop the movement of students to foreign HEIs, which costs the Greek economy 500 million euros a year and concerns approximately 40,000 students.

For Mr. Pierrakakis, the new form of HEIs will not compete with the public HEIs that remain at the core of the government’s interest and are already enjoying changes that will expand even more, so as to lead them to extroversion and to improve their operation.

He clarified on the topic of tuition fees of non-state universities that it is an issue that will concern those of them interested in investing in Greece in collaboration with domestic universities and confirmed that these branches will follow the operating conditions of their parent institutions and in matters of granting scholarships .

Finally, answering the question about the position of the other parties in the Parliament on the bill, Mr. Pierrakakis used the phrase of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis from the cabinet meeting “now we will see who is a real progressive and a real modernizer”.