Dispute between university rectors, minister heats up
A dispute between university rectors and Education Minister Constantinos Arvanitopoulos over the induction of 1,349 administrative staff at eight universities into the government’s so-called mobility scheme intensified Wednesday after both sides lodged legal appeals.
On Wednesday morning, lawyers representing rectors at eight universities affected by the overhaul lodged an appeal with the Council of State, the country’s highest administrative court, seeking the revocation of a ministerial decision to put 1,349 staff in the mobility scheme which foresees transfer or dismissal for the employees.
Eight universities – Athens University, the National Technical University of Athens, the Athens University of Economics and Business, Thessaloniki’s Aristotle University and the universities of Patra, Thessaly, Crete and Ioannina – stopped operating last month after rectors said the transfer of the administrative staff had left the institutions unable to function.
Arvanitopoulos reacted to the rectors’ action later Wednesday by lodging a request with a Supreme Court prosecutor for the eight universities to send the ministry lists of administrative staff in accordance with a government request last month.
