Greek Universities have been under attack for the past 2 years in what concerns their institutional arrangement, management, organization and funding. This is another aspect of the devastation brought upon Greek society by aggressive neoliberal policies.
Greek Universities have to deal with aggressive legislation aiming at their neoliberal restructuring. In September 2011 Greek Parliament passed Law 4009/2011, despite the opposition by student unions, who staged a 4-week strike and occupations, by professor and teaching stuff unions (although the pro-government majority of POSDEP, the national professors federation, supported the law), and the majority of University Senates and Rectors.
This new Law, another attempt toward conformity with ‘Bologna Process’ requirements, severely curtailed university democracy and autonomy by taking power from Senates – in which professors, students and other employees participate – towards oligarchic ‘University Councils’, in which apart from professors there will also be ‘representatives from society’, in reality representatives from the business world. Moreover, it includes a total overhaul of Universities, in which Departments will be turned into simple ‘study programs’ incorporated into larger Schools, overturning the policy of the last 30 years, which had the Department as the main academic unit. This will also accelerate the move towards the replacement of university degrees with individualized ‘qualification portfolios’ to be regularly updated. On top of this, working conditions within universities are going to become more flexible, with tenure becoming more difficult and with lecturers and assistant professors loosing important rights. Regarding university funding, the new Law is full with references to the need for universities looking for funding outside state sources.
It is obvious that this new Law is in line with recent legislation in most European countries and follows the pattern of ‘university reform’ suggested by the EU and OECD. It also follows the suggestions of a report made by a ‘committee of sages’ led by Linda Katehi, a report that was commissioned by the Greek Ministry of Education. Moreover, it is tailored to the needs of the current austerity packages imposed by the EU-IMF-ECB. That is why it opens the way for a big wave of School, Department and even University mergers and closures, in the name of their ‘efficiency’. For the first time in many years, Higher Education faces the danger of shrinkage: fewer departments, students, and professors.
Austerity has hit Greek Universities in many ways. University budgets (excluding salaries) have been slashed by more than 50%, leading to serious problems (lack of heating, lack of funding for basic needs). Funding for adjunct faculty has been reduced by almost 70% leading to hundreds of lay-offs. Several hundred elected faculty members have been waiting, in some cases even for 2 years, for their official appointment. All these have led to serious teaching personnel shortages. Access of students to free textbooks is reduced. Under the terms of the Loan Agreement, university professors’ salaries are going to be further reduced, despite the fact that they are already extremely low (university lecturers and assistant professors do not receive more than 1100-1400 euros per month after taxes and social security contributions).
To add insult to injury, the Greek Ministry of Education has been financially blackmailing Universities into implementing the new Law. Since elections for the new oligarchic ‘University Councils’ have been cancelled in all Universities, due to the mobilization of students and professors, who staged mass protests every time an election was called, the Ministry decided that full release of 2012 funding will be conditional upon Universities’ holding these elections! In March, after a minor government reshuffling, the new Minister for Education – himself a former rector of the University of Athens with impeccable neoliberal and conservative credentials – suggested the full release of funding and the opening of a dialogue for possible changes to the law. However, after an uproar by pro-austerity Media and leading representatives from both parties in government, the release of funding was postponed. Moreover, also in March another painful surprise came for universities. As all other Greek public sector institutions they were obliged to have deposit part of their funding to the Bank of Greece. But these obligatory deposits were ‘invested’ by the Bank of Greece in Greek government bonds. With the restructuring of the Greek sovereign debt, the real value of these deposits was reduced by more than -60%, leading to an important extra loss of funds. Universities are currently on the brink of financial collapse.
Fortunately, Greek Universities have a long tradition of struggle, from the part of both students and teaching personnel. There is a long history of victorious struggles. The last example has been the reversal in 2007 of a constitutional amendment that would have opened the way for private Higher Education. That is why the new law is far from being successfully implemented. Struggle, solidarity and unity between teachers and students are the only ways to answer the current attacks on Higher Education in Greece.
[1] Panagiotis Sotiris teaches social and political philosophy at the Department of Sociology of the University of the Aegean. He can be reached at [email protected].