Mitsotakis: The bill is a radical change in Greek education and a brave reform for growth and social justice

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Parliament is being called upon, not just to vote on a pivotal bill, but also to approve a radical change in Greek education and a brave reform for growth and social justice, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Friday during a debate on the education ministry’s bill for higher education.

“It is an initiative which primarily strengthens public universities. At the same time, however, it creates a framework so that non-state, non-profit institutions can finally operate in our country. The new provisions thus acquire a catalytically modernising and European dimension,” Mitsotakis underlined.

He spoke about a choice with two directions and parallel goals, since – on the one hand – it offers more freedom of choice to young people to study in their country and indeed, in schools that are competitive in quality, while – on the other hand – it aspires to put Greece on the international educational map as a dynamic educational centre in the wider area of the Southeast Mediterranean.

“The foundation of this reform is the restructuring and strengthening of the public university,” the prime minister stressed. “In order to free itself from the obstacles of bureaucracy. That is why 85% of the articles of the relevant bill refer to public universities, providing for funding which will cumulatively reach close to 1.5 billion euros by 2027 from European resources and from financing through the scheme of partnerships between the public and private sectors, and this beyond the money paid annually for salaries, operating costs and infrastructure, which exceeds 1.0 billion euros.”

• “We are going one step further with the organisation of joint master’s degrees between Greek and foreign universities,” the prime minister noted.

He also referred to what he called “a great innovation”, namely the possibility of establishing and operating non-state non-profit branches of foreign universities in Greece.

“An obvious aim is to stop the tens of thousands of young Greeks who leave each year to study abroad from spending valuable foreign currency and valuable resources elsewhere, outside our country, and at the same time have educational organisations invest here whose knowhow can help the overall development of education,” he said.

Mitsotakis pointed out that “the positive results are many and obvious, from relieving family budgets to the additional significant income from foreign investment and from an improvement of studies due to academic competition to the creation of new jobs that this new economic activity will obviously bring.”

Source: ANA – MPA

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