Minister set to review private college permits
The confusion over the status of private colleges in Greece looks set to intensify after the new education minister, Anna Diamantopoulou, said yesterday that she would re-examine a decision by her predecessor to grant operating licenses to 40 such schools. In his last act as education minister last week, Aris Spiliotopoulos put his signature to paperwork that allowed these colleges to operate legally in Greece. This decision, when it became public, sparked an angry reaction from university teachers, whose POSDEP union threatened to take legal action. Sources said that the possibility of the government revoking Spilotopoulos’s decision cannot be ruled out. The college owners have already said that they will challenge any legal action by POSDEP but the government could render this clash unnecessary if it revokes the permits.
