Universities occupied by students protesting private higher education
More than half of the faculties in universities are under occupation by students in protest at planned education reforms that would allow private universities to operate in Greece.
The number of occupied academic institutions has been on the rise, approaching 250 out of the total 450 faculties and departments by Thursday. Interestingly, the issue has mobilized students, resulting in higher-than-usual participation in faculty assemblies.
However, the levels of participation remain in the minority compared to the total number of students in each faculty, at a time when a large proportion of students are abstaining due to fears of being denounced and jeered at if they go against the factions calling for mobilization.
In the last few years, student assemblies have more than once become battlefields, with the intrusion of people from outside the university. The “virus” of occupations has also spread to secondary education, but with very mild “symptoms.”
Rectors have told Kathimerini that the passing of the new law – the sooner the better – will defuse the reactions.
