Reformations Being Reformed Greek universities have always been the favorable battleground for political parties in the last 30 years. Young supporters armed with partisan zeal have been fighting each other mostly verbally, but sometimes by force too. This had been happening for the primacy of the students’ movement on behalf of their political patrons, while at the same time laying the stepping stone for their future professional careers within the party apparatus. Professors are also actively involved in this entanglement choosing sides either based on their political preferences or their personal objectives. This interaction with the students benefited a few of them but defamed and scorned the rest. All those who were not collaborating with the influential minorities were either intimidated or marginalized. The students’ influence versus their teachers’ was compounded by the fact that they were allowed to vote in the rectors’ election. This lead to framing a relationship on a quid pro quo basis i.e. you vote for me and I help you with grades. Irini Skoula is a Greek student currently taking her MSc in Accounting at a university in Holland. However, being an undergraduate student at the University of Piraeus, as she claims, drained her both psychologically and physically. It was difficult, she says, to endeavor and stand firm to the intellectual oppression that the university system ruled by the party factions, imposed to the majority of the students. “Most of us were there to learn and not to improve our prospects for a future political career” she notes with bitterness. In August 2011 a bill which revised the conditionality for the state funding of universities passed without previous precedent, as the 3/4 of the Parliament voted in favor of it. The bill which provided for many issues, focused on the selection process of the Deans and Board of Trustees. Particularly, specifying that the selection will result from international competition, rather from a horse trading process of a closed circle of well-connected candidates. Furthermore, it regarded that immediate implementation of this new voting system as a prerequisite for the subsequent funding for each one of the universities. In opposing the new legal framework a group of students, academics and university employees not only raised their voices against it. Nonetheless throughout the course of the year they made every physical effort in order to prevent the practical implementation of the voting provision. Through the occupied universities, demonstrations and blocking of the Councils of Administration, the militant part of the academic community for a year hasn’t stopped fighting for the annulment of the law. ”The reformations that were voted were widely accepted, with percentages entirely unusual for the Greek parliament” says Vasilios Vlaseros from the School of Economics of the University of Edinburgh. As he has a deep knowledge of the Greek academic operational consensus, he regards the implementation of the law, aims at putting an end both at the self-governed system and at the co-administration through the exclusion of the students. “The law is in the right direction as it reduces the role of the political parties, a fact that explains the enormous obstacles it has encountered” says Mr. Vlaseros. Nevertheless, in the beginning of the New Year the state capitulated to the vested interests and in a direct breach of the law as universities received their 2012 funding

without implementing the legislation. The person who succumbed to this pressure was Mr. Babiniotis a former Dean at the University of Athens and the serving Minister of Education under PM Lukas Papadimos. In justifying his decision, the Minister stated that this will only be temporary, for a year or so, as funding of universities was more necessary due to the acute economic situation they were phasing. Consequently the selection of deans was made under the revised conditions, an issue that could be protracted. “Preserving the status quo was the broad consensus, the ultimate target of each and every one of the political groups and the relevant guilds regardless of their ideological origin”, Irini boldly claims. That was acceptable to all since the representatives of the two big parties, the largest in numbers that were only interested at which one will win the student election held annually. At the same time the rest, mostly of left radical parties which were not that interested in being the voting majority were more or less unopposed in exerting the dominant influence in the everyday functioning of the universities. Considering all, it is widely accepted that Greek universities instead of promoting the quest for knowledge, hard evidence, scientific facts and results they cultivate endless political discussions, the reward of minimum effort and exclusion of opinion diversity. This situation preserves the strength political factions have inside the academic community, with consequences such as the extended occupation of universities and the subsequent incomplete academic calendar. “The thumbnail of a country is reflected on the level of public education. The operation of universities tends to deceive both students and professors. The first ones are painstakingly investing in hopes to gain a degree of limited value. The others working hard at best, seeing their work not recognized and at worst being persecuted by organized groups of students”, Mr. Vlaseros explains. As Irini vividly described, how the academic status quo functioned, without any doubt justified Mr. Babiniotis decision. But if Greece is to boost its prospects for successfully competing in a constantly changing global environment, then the universities have to be radically reformed. As it is obvious the invested political capital is of grave importance. If the legislation will not be implemented the whole endeavor of reformation will suffer a serious blow.