Private colleges in Greece yesterday expressed their surprise at suggestions that not all the degrees they award to students will be fully recognized despite an imminent change in the law.

Education Minister Evripidis Stylianidis said on Tuesday that a draft law currently being prepared would attempt to regulate the sector.

However, he also suggested that, despite pressure from the European Union, degrees from private colleges, many of which operate as franchises of US or British institutions, would only be fully recognized if the students had also spent part of their time at the foreign school.

The Union of Greek Colleges issued a statement yesterday welcoming the minister’s moves to regulate the sector but expressed “great surprise” at reports about the proviso.

The union said that EU regulations do not allow the imposition of such prerequisites.

“The EU directive recognizes professional qualifications without requiring students to study abroad,” the head of the Euro Universities group, Manolis Amargianakis, told Kathimerini.

The Federation of Secondary School Teachers (OLME) declared its opposition to the draft law and demanded that the private colleges be shut down.

Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) MP Alekos Alavanos suggested the government was in danger of detonating a “nuclear bomb” in public education.