Zero hour for her establishment of non-state universities and in our country with the prime minister presenting the education ministry bill to the cabinet, also announcing the revision of Article 16 of the Constitution for the establishment of private higher institutions.

The prime minister described the specific bill as a historic reform that will make Greece a center for attracting students.

The government aims to pass the bill in January and Mr Mitsotakis has challenged the opposition to prove it is progressive. On the contrary, with the establishment of non-state universities, SYRIZA declares, while Nikos Androulakis was in favor of their creation as long as they meet specific conditions. On the contrary are the rest of the opposition parties.

The bill will be put to public consultation and introduced to Parliament next month.

In detail, the conditions for setting up branches of foreign universities in Greece and the benefits according to the Ministry of Education

Will there be conditions according to which the branches of foreign universities will be established in Greece?

A series of conditions will regulate the licensing of their annexes foreign universities in order to achieve the highest possible quality of the educational services provided and the optimal response to the educational economic and social needs of the country. The National Authority for Higher Education (ETH.A.A.E.) will be responsible for checking the installation and licensing conditions of foreign branches, for their evaluation and certification of their study programs.

For the licensing of a branch of a foreign university should consist of the first year of operation from at least three university faculties. In addition, the branch of the foreign university should, among other things:

– to be recognized in the country from which it originates, certified by the equivalent of the ETH.A.A.E. accredited Authority for the provision of higher education programs and the granting of degrees,
– the individual study programs leading to the awarding of study titles should also have been certified by the accredited Authority of the country of origin,
– the degrees that will be issued in Greece will be the same as the degrees that would have been granted if the students’ education had taken place entirely in the university’s country of origin,
– the degrees issued in Greece will confer the same academic and professional rights as those valid in the country of origin,
– the members of its teaching and educational staff have a doctoral degree, while its special teaching staff cannot exceed 20% of its teaching and research staff,
– in case of revocation for any reason of the permission of the branch, the parent institution will be jointly responsible with its branch for the completion of the studies of the latter’s students and the awarding of degrees to them,
– to have a training school license in accordance with the Building Regulations in force today, and its building infrastructure should be self-contained, to have a library, workshop spaces, multimedia rooms, sufficient logistic equipment etc.,
– to have financial reliability and robustness, which will also result from a five-year economic and technical viability study, which will be certified by a reliable audit-consulting company,
– to provide a letter of guarantee of good performance from a reputable bank in the amount of 500,000 euros for each school and to pay a fee of 500,000 euros for the granting of the operating and installation license.

And what will Greece finally gain from the establishment of foreign university branches on its territory?

  • First, it will attract a portion of the overflowing global demand for university studies in a country other than that of the person concerned. Advanced countries like, UK, USA, Netherlands, Canada, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, France, Italy, Spain, Australia etc. attract hundreds of thousands of foreign students to their universities. These are educational service exporting countries. Such in Europe are still Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Czech Republic, Estonia and Latvia and Cyprus. Global demand is directed to all these countries and the competition between them to attract students is very intense. China and India have entered this intense competitive race with claims. About 40,000 foreign students study in the universities of Cyprus, while even in our neighbor Bulgaria, about 15,000 foreign students study in its universities.
  • Secondly, it will also cover the large ever-increasing domestic demand for university studies. The gap in the higher education market is covered to a large extent by foreign universities or colleges. In the case of foreign universities, the effects on the Greek economy, the demographic issue, etc. are obvious. In particular, according to the latest available data, approximately 40,000 Greeks are studying in universities abroad. The cost to the country’s balance of payments amounted to approximately €1 billion. Greece with 10 million inhabitants has more students abroad in absolute number and as a percentage of the population than Spain (35,348) with 46 million inhabitants, the United Kingdom (33,109) with 66 million inhabitants, Austria (17,501) with 9 million inhabitants or Portugal (12,951) of 10 million inhabitants.

In addition to the direct negative effects on the Greek economy and the budget of the students’ families, this situation also negatively affects the country’s production possibilities curve. In other words, to the extent that the graduates of foreign universities remain abroad, the investment in human capital, new knowledge, ideas, technologies will remain in the host countries and will not return to Greece.

Question: Will there be other positive effects for the country?

Is sure. The countries that until today have realized the importance of the expansion of international markets in higher education, the export of university education services and strengthen it, are constantly improving their economic development indicators.

The direct and visible benefits for the economy of these countries mainly come from:

a) from the living expenses of foreign students in the host country
b) from the creation of thousands of new jobs, educational and administrative staff, but also many more related scientific-research professions
c) from the development of the real estate market and consequently the construction market
d) from the educational tourism of the students themselves, as well as their relatives and friends, which almost always accompanies the export of university education services
e) from the taxes imposed by these states on the generated income and on all kinds of related transactions
f.) from stopping to a large extent the tendency of their own young people to expatriate for undergraduate or postgraduate studies in universities abroad with direct effects on their balance of payments
g) from investments in education and research, which in many countries compete with or even exceed investments in industry, new technologies, energy, tourism, etc.
h) from the repatriation of Greek academics and scientists who will have the opportunity to work in a decent university environment in their country.

But do foreign universities lead to the degradation of the public universities of Greece?

On the contrary, the public universities of Greece can only win. The “argument”, that the operation of non-state universities in Greece can lead to economic development, to a significant blockage of the outflow of Greeks to universities abroad and make Greece an international educational destination, but will degrade the public universities of Greece, is not correct. and it has not happened in any other country in the world. Everywhere the coexistence of public and non-public universities benefits both public universities and significantly reduces inequalities and strengthens competition. In many countries, the establishment or further development of non-state universities contributed significantly to the increase in both the access of children from economically weaker families to higher education and social mobility.

Are the colleges operating today in the country affected by this development?

Colleges are educational institutions of non-formal post-secondary education. They operate in Greece based on certification, validation or franchise agreements they have concluded with foreign universities. The degrees of the cooperating foreign universities sponsored by the colleges lead to the recognition of professional equivalence only with the degrees of the Greek universities.
A significant part of the demand for higher education studies has been channeled over the years to colleges that cooperate with foreign universities and provide degrees recognized by law and leading to professional recognition. Today, thousands of Greek students study in them, choosing an ever-increasing number of majors.
The operating status of the colleges is not changed by the introduction of the new institutional framework, nor is anyone excluded provided they meet the conditions that will apply to non-profit branches of foreign universities.