Student Campaign in Greece: the attack of the zombies


The reaction to the proposed educational reforms have caused the same
reaction as Falcone's campaign against the Mafia. During this summer,
where most students have gone home, the university mafia has occupied
schools, vandalised research centers and dismissed all proposals. These
"representatives"of the students are learning fast that thuggery and
intimidation will not allow them to spend seven year vacations at the
expense of the majority of students.

What are the main points of these "revolutionaries":

** They do not want undergraduate and postgraduate degrees.
** They do not want universities to be under any classification.
** They do not want private universities.

The university mafia is reacting to the Bolognia Declaration (a bit
late since it was signed in June 1999) which attempts to rationalise
university degrees across the EU. It wants to ensure that:

a) Degrees are comparable: right now most greek university degrees are
worth nothing in the rest of Europe (with a few very notable exceptions
EMP, Uni of Patras EE, Athens Arts & Humanities etc because of the
personal reputation of professors)
b) Introduction of postgraduate and undergraduate studies
c) Mobility: students should be able to study in different european
countries (and the same for faculty)

For the vast majority of students in Greece having to struggle for a
proper job and leaving university with a vast array of useless degrees
these reforms are a neccesity. Private universities will obviously
limit entry on the basis of family income or ability to obtain
scholarship but in no country in the world are private universities
consistently better than state universities. It is rather the quality
of the faculty that determines whether a university is world class and
fortunately Greek state universities still attract great minds.

So what is causing this uproar? First note that due to the summer
holidays, the hooligans that have started this campaign can pretend
that they are in control. Then note that from the sad story of greek
higher education there are winners, namely, the faculty and students
that use universities as their personal fiefdom: they are free to
cancel lectures, pursue politics, neglect lecture notes and research,
in brief live a privileged life. Even now the university entry exams
show a marked preference for specific universities; but a transparent
system of comparison risk embarassing the university mafia and robbing
them of a work free job. As for the student mafia, the three year
undegraduate degree with limited retaking of exams will rob them of the
seven year holidays that they are currently taking. It will mean that
not all degrees are equal since a student who has eventually taken a
seven year degree after multiple failures of the exams under the new
reforms will end with no degree at all. Furthermore the limited
resources of postgraduate education will not be given freely to the
university tourists but rather to those that demonstrate a real
interest in their studies.

So let the mafia burn and loot. After the summer heat ends, autumn will
send them to their caves.

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