The government’s bill concerning the strengthening of public universities and the operation of non-state non-profit universities in the country was passed by 159 votes in the Parliament.
“Greece aligns educationally with the rest of the planet”
“After decades of discussion, this evening begins the great historical change” emphasized the Minister of Education, Kyriakos Pierrakakis during his final speech on the bill for “strengthening the public university and the operating framework of foreign university branches in Greece”.
“Today we are voting on a bill which, in fact, has historical characteristics, because it defines a new phase in the Higher Education of our country” he said shortly before the roll-call vote, given that this includes a vote on the articles concerning both public universities and the establishment of branches of foreign universities, called on the parties “to show if they mean what they say and if they say what they mean when they talk about supporting the Greek public university”.
In light of this, he addressed the question to the Opposition: Will you vote against those articles which constitute a proposal of the Synod of Rectors, the proposal of the Democritus University of Thrace and the proposal concerning the Hellenic Open University?
“Here is Rhodes. We invite you to adopt them. It was a proposal of the Chancellors. We also adopted it with courage and strength,” he added.
Regarding the establishment of branches of foreign universities, Mr. Pierrakakis underlined that “a request and a debate of decades with our vote tonight begins to become a reality” and emphasized that the majority of Greek society, as seen in every poll, supports this initiative .
Addressing those who do not support this government initiative, he clarified: “We have nothing to fear. You have nothing to fear. The responsibility of the application is on us to be able to convince you. And we will.”
“Greece, with this act, aligns itself educationally with the rest of the planet,” the Minister of Education finally emphasized.
What the political leaders said
Kyriakos Mitsotakis characterized the university bill as a radical cut in Greek education, which, as he said, strengthens the public sector, while with the establishment of non-state institutions, it gives the new generation equal academic opportunities.
At the same time, he emphasized that “the times when some people made a career shouting ‘companies out of Universities have passed forever'”. Universities are here to provide specialized knowledge and connect that knowledge to the labor market,” he stressed.
All opposition parties accused the prime minister of serving friendly interests.
Stefanos Kasselakis launched a scathing accusation against the government, describing it as an “unconstitutional business” that turns universities into supermarkets.
The president of PaSoK – KINAL Nikos Androulakis in his statement pointed out that “we are voting against on principle, we do not trust that you want to strengthen universities, nor do we believe that you have a real plan for non-profit universities”.
The new government-PaSoK confrontation
At the same time, a fight broke out between ND and PaSoK over the revision of article 16 of the Constitution. In particular, Dimitris Manzos, the parliamentary representative of PaSoK, stated that in order for the party to support the revision of article 16 – which enables non-state universities to operate normally – there should be a debate on the content of this article as such his.
In response, the Minister of Education Kyriakos Pierrakakis spoke about the 6th election of the PaSoK and thanked Mr. Manzos as he “discounted the electoral victory of the ND in the 2027 elections”.
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