Universities: Kerameos requests proposals for mergers of departments from the Rectors

The Minister of Education and Religions, Niki Kerameos, invited the proposal of a restructuring plan to be submitted by each Higher Education Institution, with a letter addressed today to the Rectors of the whole country. According to this letter, the Administrations of the Institutions are invited to submit their proposal, evaluating, in addition to the strategic and development goals of each Institution, a series of elements related to the organization, operation and viability of the study programs.

The Administrations of the HEIs are invited to submit their plans in the direction of the consolidation and rationalization of the academic map by the end of March 2022, proposing changes in the academic structure, such as:

• Departments of Department / Departments
• mergers with another Department / Departments of the same or another Institution
• substantial reform and reorganization of his / her curriculum in order to respond more fully to the developments of science, the needs of the labor market, society and the economy.

The Minister underlines to the Rectors that “the restructuring of the Academic Charter of the country is an undertaking of national importance and can contribute significantly to the strengthening of the academic and research community as well as to the reform of the educational model of the country in the field of Higher Education. in the development policy of the country “.

This move is deemed necessary due to the changes that occurred in the Higher Education Institutions a few years ago, mainly the indiscriminate universityization of the Technological Educational Institutions and the establishment of new study programs without prior opinion from the competent Independent Authority. their viability. Consequently, significant distortions have occurred, such as e.g. the overlap of several cognitive subjects from different Universities, the existence of related Departments within the same Institution and the fragmentation of cognitive subjects into separate Departments, the discrepancy of the curricula with the existing human resources, infrastructure and equipment issues, the international scientific developments, the real needs of society and the labor market.

It is reminded that the Minister has already proceeded:

• to suspend the operation of 37 new departments established before the elections by the previous Government without academic criteria, without prior substantive studies of feasibility and viability, without the opinion of the Independent Quality Assurance and Certification Authority in Higher Education. moment,
• the abolition of the provision which provided for the establishment of a fourth Law School in the country,
• in the merger of 4 departments following a proposal of the University of Patras,
• in the merging of the Higher Ecclesiastical Academies, from 4 to 2, in the broader context of rationalization of the academic map of the country, based on the demand of the candidates and the very low absorption of their graduates in the market.

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