University think tank takes form
A group of 1,000 university teachers have pooled their energies to create a think tank aimed at reforming Greece’s tertiary education sector, experts said yesterday. The group – which calls itself the Observatory for Tertiary Education – aims to develop new ideas as well as studying international trends. It will also seek to boost economic backing for universities. «It is basically a forum to debate new ideas for changes to tertiary education and for reforms on the basis of developments in Europe and the USA,» the think tank’s president, Achilleas Mitsos, told Kathimerini. The organization is planning an international conference for March 27 which will bring together foreign academics and intellectuals with experience of running universities. The conference is to analyze ways of guaranteeing quality education through the systematic assessment of university staff and infrastructure. The ultimate aim, experts say, is to raise Greek universities to a level where they can compete on the European market.
