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Radical changes for teachers and funding of universities in Greece in September

13 June 2011 / 20:06:48  GRReporter
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Radical changes in universities concerning administration, teachers and subsidies are expected to rouse Greek academics. The final text of the new law contains a framework of reforms according to which at least ten technical schools from the 40 that currently exist in the country will close and the rest will be merged with universities.

The things will seriously change for the teachers who will have to be on the alert for their positions, and those who have not appeared in the halls will have to finally begin to teach their students in person. From then on, the teachers with the highest degrees will be assessed by a panel of international academics every five years on the base of international criteria. If a teacher does "not pass" the test he or she will be assessed after three years and in case this same teacher does not pass again then he or she will be removed from the university activity and appointed in another civil service. The procedure will not require the teachers’ opinion. Every five years the dean of the faculty will take the curriculum vitae of every teacher and the academic results of his or her work and will send them directly to the committee abroad. This provision will surely surprise unpleasantly the majority of the teachers, especially those who do not go to the halls because they know that can not be controlled.

Similar is the provision that seeks to stop the "family line" appointment of teachers. The assessment committee will consist of seven persons and its members will be strictly selected from the same specialty in which the teacher is to be assessed. According to the Ministry of Education, the aim is to stop the accusations by members of the academic community against their colleagues that are appointed following the party line or because of family relationships with other teachers, which happened because the law has enabled the assessment committee to involve teachers of specialties similar to that of the assessed teacher. Furthermore, the teachers in the committee will not be from the same university with the candidate. There will be four Greeks and the rest will be from foreign universities and will "examine" the candidates through teleconferencing calls.

There will be made radical changes in universities funding too. Under the new procedures, positions supported by private foundations will be established as well as grants on the basis of collected bonuses for competitiveness. The new law will be submitted to Parliament in two weeks and will be voted on July 20. The Ministry of Education has not decided yet what will happen with the students of those faculties, which will be closed or merged. One of the options is these faculties to continue to function until the last class of students who learn there graduate and no new students to be accepted.

The third factor for universities "rescue" is the money or their funding. Now it is not about state money, but about finding new sources of funding, to which most universities did not give importance until now. The idea is that universities should produce knowledge on everyday basis, obtain patents, make researches for the state or the private sector, and participate in international competitive programs. Many universities already operate in this way and their revenues from the special account for research exceed the annual revenues from state funding.

Large universities have already started playing the game of the "market economy", for example, the University of Crete. There is one of the best laboratories for studying the modern laser treatment techniques for cataract, myopia and other eye diseases, founded by Dean Ioannis Palikaris. Thousands of surgeries with the latest techniques for laser treatment are made there annually. "We earned about 25 million euros over the past 20 years," said Palikaris for Vima newspaper, adding that the money is invested back in research. Furthermore, the University of Crete sells to the municipalities on the island "know-how" on issues related to the Internet, web pages development, etc.
 
Another good example is the National Polytechnic University Metsovio in Athens, where 135 research laboratories operate, employing 2,800 young researchers. 706 new research projects totaling 70 million euros were approved for 2006-2007. Around five million euros from research projects are invested annually in training and research and 150 doctoral candidates are granted scholarships of 7,500 euros per year.

The Thessaloniki Aristotle University has reduced its costs by € 9,000,000 this year and proposes concrete solutions, one of them being to change the system of the financial management and save another 15 million. The Dean Yannis Milopoulos warns that "the university should seek ways to increase its funding, but there is the risk of becoming dependent on private interests." But experience shows that there are solutions, for example, the two professors from the University of Thessaloniki who recently completed their project of reconstructing the ancient mechanism of AntiKitira, which operates and is considered the ancestor of modern computers. According to the Milopoulos, "this discovery was requested by three major museums in the USA that offer huge amounts, which is beneficial to the university without casting a shadow over the work."

The Vice Dean of the Athens University Thomas Sfikopoulos is considering another course. "Every year there is an inflow of 4-5 million euros in the university to cover our needs. If there is no constitutional barrier and a university with 60,000 active students is allowed to determine an annual sum of 1,000 euros for each one of them then it would have direct revenues of 60 million a year."

Tags: NewsUniversitiesTeachersGrantsFundsScholarshipsDepartmentsFacultiesResearch laboratoriesStudents
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