By Dora Antoniou

The start of the application process for non-state operation universitieswhich will run in the first two months of the new year, forms the framework on which a tough political confrontation is expected in the near future. For the government, it is an important bet to collect a sufficient number of applications from prestigious educational institutions abroad. It is the field on which the success of one of the important reforms he decided to legislate will be judged, despite the strong objections raised by the opposition. Now, almost a year after the legislation, the project will be tested in practice.

Government sources speak of a particularly interesting two months for education, giving an indication of the importance the developments will have. The Minister of Education, Kyriakos Pierrakakis, has appeared in public statements optimistic about the success of the effort, while from the floor of the Parliament he recently spoke about a taboo that we will see in 2025 be broken, with the establishment of non-state, non-profit universities in our country.

With the beginning of the new year, therefore, the legislative framework established by the government will be tested in practice, in its implementation, advancing an issue which for several years was at the center of discussions, without taking the next step.

It is one of the central issues expected to concern us at the start of the new year. On the part of the government, it will be sought to give the message of running forward with the reforms it dares, not even hesitating to clash with entrenched attitudes and strong minorities. A necessary condition is to actually confirm great interest from important universities in the first year, and in the second year to justify the expectations that our country can attract students from third countries and become a regional education center.

From the side of the opposition, there is already talk of a “hot” period with the start of the new year. Both PASOK and SYRIZA dispute the government’s narrative and have publicly assessed that the expectations on which the decision to legislate the possibility of establishing non-state universities was based are overly optimistic, while they have also raised issues of constitutionality, referring to Article 16 of the Constitution.

All this debate is expected to come back to the fore in the near future, as the issue is proven to attract the interest of public opinion, beyond its political characteristics.