The 1,000 academics who came to work are ‘human capital’
Kozani Mayor Paris Koukoulopoulos comments: «For the 30 years of the TEI’s existence (it was one of the first to be founded by Constantine Karamanlis in 1976) the local economy has gradually developed around it. «People invested, they did not try to deceive others, they were not opportunists and upstarts. Thirty years is a whole generation, all this did not happen from one day to the next. What worries me more than anything else is that an academic workforce came to the city that would never have come if it weren’t for the TEI. «This human capital of 1,000 academics (250 with a doctorate, 250 with a master’s degree and 500 university graduates) would never have gathered here otherwise. I would like a way to be found to keep these people here. If the TEI is not the way to do this, then what is? «We propose as a solution the gradual application of the measure over a two-to-three year period with a corresponding reduction of entrants from the centre, and the restructuring of the TEI with the addition of new departments related to the economy and needs of the area.»
