“Private universities do not meet the needs of Greek society,” says the president of the New Left Parliamentary Group, Alexis Haritsis, in a post, adding that “the New Left will fight, inside and outside the Parliament, to not pass the New Democracy bill”.

In detail, the post:

“Private universities? no thanks.

The government announced its plan today for the establishment of private universities in our country. This is a declared goal of New Democracy. Private universities do not meet the needs of Greek society. They concern the deep ideological core of the Greek Right and serve specific economic interests that see yet another opportunity for speculation.

The New Left will fight, inside and outside the Parliament, to prevent the New Democracy bill from passing and to open a serious, coordinated debate about what our country really needs: the renaissance of public higher education.

The “free university” that the government promotes is a lie. It is the way to create multi-speed graduates and the degradation of our country’s universities. To achieve this, it relies on an expansive interpretation of Article 28 of the Constitution that directly circumvents Article 16. But it is not only a matter of constitutional order. It is a deeply social and political issue.

The New Democracy government systematically discredits universities. He presents them as centers of lawlessness, he is indifferent to the demands of the university community, and he has done little to heal the wounds of the crisis: he has not moved to fill the important vacancies in teaching positions, he has abolished teaching programs for new PhDs, he has not intervened in the bubble in the prices of real estate that prevents thousands of students from renting a house. Currently, the financing of higher education moves to 2.8% of GDP, while the European average is 5%. In a future landscape where private and public universities will function complementary, issues of fair competition will oblige the State to finance them equally, inevitably resulting in the further underfunding of the latter.

The establishment of private universities is directed against the core of the public university which has acted as a mechanism of upward social mobility for its graduates. Let’s put it simply: education for the New Democracy is not a right. It is a privilege for those who can pay for it.

In fact, given the bitter condition of student care, and with the argument that studying at regional universities costs the same as private ones, the first victims of this reform will be regional institutions which will see students and their funding shrink dramatically.

The country today needs an education system that lays the foundations for the great technological transformations to come, changes that require strategic and long-term planning from both the State and the educational community. So, higher education must invest in providing comprehensive knowledge that will help prepare the country for the challenges ahead. Knowledge that will not be provided by private institutions that will operate solely on the basis of the ephemeral response of supply and demand. Such a development would undermine the professional rights of graduates and lead to an anarchic trade in hope. where degrees will be bought and sold by “institutions” of dubious seriousness.

So we need universities that are strong and robust, upgraded and extroverted, oriented to the great challenges facing our country. These can only be the public universities. And the first step for this is to hear the voice of the academic community, male and female students, who demand the self-evident: financing of universities, covering the gaps in infrastructure and staff, full professional rights for graduates, autonomy in their administrative function .

The New Left calls for a front of disobedience to the government’s plans. Don’t allow the establishment of private universities. To defeat the ideological core of the Right-wing government, which sees privatization and the demolition of public infrastructure as the solution to every problem. To make our universities living cells in a new era for everyone’s right to education. The university of the future is not for-profit. It is public planning based on social needs. For the right of Greek society to see its efforts rewarded. For the right of young people to quality studies with prospects and not dead ends.

Our free university is the democratic and public university!”