Medicine and police training top choices
A steady job, free education and good-quality studies, that is the message sent by thousands of 18-year-olds who voted for the first time in the elections on Sunday and who sat the university entrance exams in June. There are three main trends as regards course preferences. Schools that offer definite and fast entry into the labor market, centrally located schools and traditional or general scientific studies are the most popular. More obscure or specialized courses are not much sought after. Most students aspire to become teachers, doctors, lawyers, architects, police officers, mathematicians or physicists with a degree from a university in either Athens or Thessaloniki. The expense of studying away from home is a deterrent and has been estimated by a General Confederation of Greek Labor (GSEE) study to cost families 1,441.8 million euros for tertiary education. It is not surprising therefore that there were 279 applications for the Nursing School at the Athens Technical College and only 36 for the University of the Peloponnese. Traditional professions such as law, medicine, architecture and civil engineering are high on the list of preferences. It seems that job security is an important factor when choosing a course. Teacher training departments are high on the list of preferences, as they offer fast recruitment into the state sector. This year there was considerable interest in preschool teacher-training departments, which can be attributed to the fact that as of this year schooling is obligatory for 5-year-olds. Undoubtedly there will be an increase in children registered in nursery schools and the demand for teachers will rise over the next few years. The Athens University Preschool Education Department is now among the first eight choices for the first time. This year 579 candidates put it down as a first choice in comparison to 463 candidates last year. Physical education has also become very popular as a result of a demand for PE teachers in primary education and in particular in all-day schools. Traditional schools, such as the Athens and Thessaloniki law schools, also continue to hold their status among the first eight choices. Greek literature at Athens University, however, was not in demand this year as the students preferred primary education courses. Not surprisingly there is an overconcentration of applicants for the popular schools. No less than 9,437 candidates put the Pedagogical School at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki as a first choice. Information technology. The IT department of the Harokopion University in Athens ranked high among the elite departments. It opens for the first time this year with 630 applicants. On the whole, though, there was a decline in the number of applicants for IT departments. This was also true of the military schools, with fewer applicants than last year. However, the traditional schools for maths and physics remain high in demand. Although these courses do not offer graduates the opportunity to find a post in a state school, they do open doors to postgraduate study and a better post in Greek enterprises. Doctors and dietitians. This year’s 18-year-olds performed very well in health sciences and applied for the high-ranking medical schools. This meant there were fewer applicants for schools with less stringent entrance criteria. The two top medical schools have not changed position in terms of preference among 18-year-olds. The Athens University Medical School received 915 applications as opposed to 1,025 last year – the drop is natural as there are fewer candidates. The Physiotherapy Department of the Athens Tertiary Technical College (TEI) came second and was a first choice for 492 students as opposed to 793 last year. There was also a high demand for food and nutrition, a relatively modern science. The technical colleges in the capital were also popular as they offer better job opportunities than universities in the provinces. A characteristic example was the Athens Technical College Nursing School, which was put down as a first choice by 279 candidates, whereas the University of the Peloponnese received a mere 36 applications. Civil and mechanical engineering. There was less interest in technical colleges that offer technological courses. This year students preferred to apply for courses run by the prestigious departments at centrally located technical universities. For the first time, technical colleges offering engineering courses did not feature in the first eight as a first choice. In 2006, the Athens Technical College IT department was fourth and its counterpart in Thessaloniki was eighth. As many students excelled in the entrance exams, they placed the much sought-after university departments as a first choice and as a result there is an overconcentration of students applying to do engineering in these schools. The National Technical University of Athens’s Engineering School came sixth this year (last year it did not even feature among the first eight) and 476 students put it down as a first choice. Police officers and accountants. Police academies that guarantee employment upon graduation are the dream of most candidates. Accountancy was also very popular as it offers clear vocational training. Nevertheless, fewer candidates put down police academies as a first choice this year even though the academies hold the first two places. There was greater interest this year in accountancy courses offered at both universities and technical colleges. Students obviously prefer schools that offer good job opportunities. Strangely enough, only one student put tourism studies at Lamia Technical College as a first choice. The student in question was not accepted.
