I was young and I was old... since the issue of private Universities began to trouble the governments of our country. Society has changed and matured, but the perception that these Universities will harm public education remains the same. Unfortunately, however, the public sector does not seem to have been supported by the state as much as it should have been all these years, while at the same time the graduates of Greek Universities excel abroad.
The pretext for the non-operation of private universities remains article 16 of the Constitution, which, however, in its first paragraph states: "Art and science, research and teaching are free, their development and promotion is an obligation of States". Besides, Mr. Professor Spyridon Flogaitis of the Faculty of Law, EKPA, in his article mentions, among other things, the following: "The Constitution is a living mechanism of organization of the State, and it must be interpreted according to the times, without the need for the process of political intervention for constitutional revision".
The Minister of Education Kyriakos Pierrakakis, assuming his duties, announced in an interview on Vima tis Kyriakis the solution that can be given to this problem. Specifically, he referred to the operation of branches of international Universities, which would like to be established in our country. These Departments will be equal to the Greek Universities, of a non-profit nature, and their operating criteria will be strict and will be set by the National Authority of Higher Education. A parallel condition - he stressed - is the strengthening of the Greek public universities.
I believe that this solution paves the way for progress for our country, which is an unfortunate exception in this field of education. Without weakening public education, it offers a way out for the few young people of our country, who follow studies in Universities abroad, not because the public Universities do not provide the required knowledge, or because they themselves are not capable of being admitted, but because the conditions that prevailing for their introduction are not favorable. The financial cost to parents is often prohibitive, but the country's economy is also tested by sending so many young people to universities in foreign countries. Besides, the regulation proposed can be done immediately, without waiting for a revision of the Constitution, while giving the message that Greece is a destination for Education and reception of foreign students, and not only a country for exporting students and teachers. In addition, this solution strengthens the effort to remove introversion, which is also the aim of the English-language undergraduate and postgraduate programs, which have been designed by the Greek Universities, and are already operating successfully at the University of Athens.
In the era of progress and development, in the country that gave birth to democracy and civilization, and that aspires to be at the forefront of international developments, reservations about the operation of these branches of international Universities are simply unnecessary. Let us only hope that there will be a satisfactory response.
