One does not need to read the Shanghai World University Rankings, which was released this week, to find out about the poor state of Greece’s tertiary institutions.

One may question this specific grading of academic and research performance of higher education institutions across the world, but the fact that the list only includes the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and Thessaloniki’s Aristotle University -- which are, in fact, near the bottom of the table -- speaks volumes about the decline of the country’s education standards.

The poor rating did not come as a surprise of course, given the multiple problems dogging Greek universities, the reactions of those who have an interest in keeping things the way they are now, and the unwillingness of state officials to shake up the system.

The government recently backed down in the face of pressure from those who want to reduce the nation’s universities to domains of corrupt exchange. Doing so, however, is killing all hope for Greece’s future.