Thousands of Greek students demonstrated in Athens and other cities on Thursday to protest against planned education reforms that would allow the introduction of private universities in the country.
The conservative government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who won a second term last year, is expected to present a bill to parliament this month that would allow private universities to operate within Greece.
The government has said the schools will function as branches of foreign universities. Many believe the move will devalue degrees from Greek public universities and that the private system will exclude those who cannot afford it.
The change “will destroy the public university as we knew it,” said student Christina Iliopoulou, who joined the protest in Athens. “It will destroy our daily lives in terms of how we will be able to find a job after we graduate.”
The protests were largely peaceful, but there was a brief clash in Athens between protesters and police, who fired tear gas.
Universities in Greece are government-funded institutions where attendance has been free for decades.
But Greece has implemented a series of educational reforms in the past despite fierce opposition from students and staff.
The government, which enjoys a parliamentary majority, has argued that the reform would boost the economy by attracting some of the around 40,000 students now studying abroad and reversing the academic brain drain caused by the 2010 debt crisis. -2018.
The curriculum at private universities would follow very strict academic standards, the government said last week, adding that the reform would also free public universities from bureaucracy and boost their self-governance.
