Mixed outlook on education
University students and professors yesterday expressed mixed feelings about the situation in the higher education sector ahead of today’s protest in Athens against university reforms. The students’ rally, starting at noon, will coincide with 24-hour strikes by university professors and civil servants. With university professors back at work this week after a two-month strike and the number of occupied universities below 200 for the first time in three months, many believe protests are winding down, while some think there is still trouble ahead. According to Dimitris Voloudakis, president of the ruling New Democracy-affiliated student union DAP-NDFK, the protests were «a lot of fuss over nothing.» «The reforms do not justify the intensity of the protests, nor their cost to students,» he said. But according to Dimitris Tzamouranis, a member of the left-wing student union EAAK, «the struggle yielded something very important – young people stood up and challenged the government’s policy.» The fact that university sit-ins are ending does not spell the end of students’ woes, according to Yiannis Maistros, vice president of the Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (POSDEP), whose members staged a two-month walkout in solidarity with students. «Making up for lost lessons is easy. Restoring calm in universities is hard,» he said. «The upheaval is the fault of the government, which changed the role of higher education and is legislating arrogantly, opposing most professors and students.» According to Vassilis Papazoglou of the National Technical University of Athens, sit-ins were a mistake. «I feel a certain bitterness about the closed universities. They cost us a lot,» he said.
