With a proposal from the National Authority for Higher Education (ETHAAE) and the “signature” of the government, it seems that the operation of 37 university departments, which were supposed to operate in Athens, Thessaloniki and almost all the major cities of the country, is finally coming to an end. These departments were established in 2019 and were to operate gradually in 2021 and 2022. However, when the ND won the 2019 elections, it decided to suspend their operation in order to review whether they met the relevant academic criteria and referred them to the National Higher Education Authority (ETHAAE. Despite the fact that some universities insisted on their opening, ETHAAE did not agree and so now they will be definitively abolished as a relevant decision is expected from the Minister of Education Kyriakos Pierrakakis. However, the government is not positive about the creation of new departments at public universities and it is recalled that the former Minister of Education Mrs. Kerameos had already proceeded:
- in the suspension of the operation of 37 new departments that were established by SYRIZA in the run-up to the elections in 2019, without (as the minister had said) academic criteria, without having been preceded by substantial studies of feasibility and sustainability, without the opinion of the Independent Quality Assurance and Certification Authority at the Supreme Education, and sometimes with last-minute parliamentary amendments,
- to the repeal of the provision that provided for the establishment of a fourth Law School in the country,
- in the merger of 4 departments following the recommendation of the University of Patras,
- in the amalgamation of the Supreme Ecclesiastical Academies, from 4 to 2, in the wider context of streamlining the academic map of the country, based on both the demand of the candidates and the very low absorption of their graduates in the market.
Tags: Final fee University departments
