Greek students and teachers protest opening of private universities

Thousands of students gathered in Athens on Thursday to protest against the planned admission of private universities, bringing the centre of the Greek capital to a standstill.

The conservative government plans to allow such private institutions from 2025, provided that a corresponding catalogue of criteria is met.

Students and teachers are concerned that education will become more and more elitist and that public universities could be neglected, while referring to the ban on private universities that is currently laid out in the Greek constitution.

In addition to professors, other public sector employees also took part in the protests. People also took to the streets in Thessaloniki.

In a televised interview on Thursday morning, Education Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis said that the criteria for the admission of the new universities were "the strictest in Europe."

He added that private universities would have the same so called numerus clausus admission standard as public institutions, meaning that if the number of applications exceeds the number of places available, only the best applicants will be accepted.

Regarding the accusation that the quality of the degrees could be worth less than at public universities, Pierrakakis pointed out that around 40,000 students were currently studying abroad, whose degrees would also be recognized later.

The accusation that private universities are forbidden by the constitution was refuted by the government with the argument that the country was adapting to current EU law with this step.

Many Greek families have been sending their children abroad to study if they can afford it. Young people often remain abroad after their studies.

The government is keen for young people to study in Greece and enter the domestic labour market when they graduate.