As external members in Tips from Greek Universities. They themselves will make up the university academicians, who will be elected by the votes of their colleagues. On the way to the urn there is a large background. “Headquarters” have already revealed the secrets of the new electoral system. Such as told yesterday in “K” its executive Ministry of Educationa small section in the district can elect a rector in… bestial EKPA!

In particular, elections are scheduled next week for the country’s two largest regional universities – Thessaly and Epirus – for the Agricultural University. Athens – the third oldest university in Greece – and the Polytechnic Institute of Crete. According to K’s information, about 30 non-university students from each institution nominated for five positions in the councils of the universities of Thessaly and Ioannina, while the number of nominations at the Agricultural and Technical University of Crete is satisfactory. .

Candidates for four universities include an entrepreneur from a large water company in Epirus, a well-known Greek professor at Johns Hopkins University in the United States, professors from European universities, leaders in the financial sector and the Attica region, entrepreneurs from the geotechnical sector, doctors and engineers who are graduates of institutions, and most are honorary professors .

Strategy

A small section in the district can elect the rector for… the monstrous EKPA!

The elections are a crash test for the new electoral system, it should be noted that SYRIZA did not agree to abstain from the elections, saying that it will completely repeal the new law 4957 of 2022 if it is elected to the government. According to this law, whichever group has a majority of the members of the Council, it will appoint a dean, who, in turn, will choose the vice-rectors and deans. Thus, the headquarters of the candidates form their political and electoral tactics in order to win a majority in the Council.

How; The council consists of 11 members: six of its members are professors of the institution and five are non-members of the university. If out of six university professors, four are elected to form a team, then in the selection of five non-university professors, four can vote for two or three (or all). With this factional logic, a group of six or seven people will be “formed” from eleven members, and they will choose the “loneliest” candidate for the post of rector. For this reason, future professors who want to run for rector are not only interested in being elected (which they should probably be sure of if they have big ambitions), but also trying to unravel the secrets of a confusing system. a taxonomy of voting, which is implemented in such a way that there are no “lost” votes, and their voters give the award to “friendly” co-candidates.

“The stake of the election is that the implementation of the new law will lead to the selection of people who can contribute to the development of the university, and not that the law becomes a pretext for developing relationships with clients. Unfortunately, while we are seeing the second, remarks on “K” outgoing Vice Chancellor Pan. Yanina, Spyros Georgatos. “We had a pre-election period without public debate on important issues such as the future of the university, undergraduate and graduate strategy, funding at a time when energy costs are rising, the minimum admission base. Candidates are simply promised the positions of vice-rectors and deans if they are elected to the position of dean,” he adds.

“It is considered extremely unlikely and rather unprovable that there would not be any kind of consensus among those elected to the new Council.” remarks on “K” rector of Athens Agricultural University, Spyros Kintsios. “There are points in the new law that need to be improved. But be that as it may, our institution must look to the future with extraversion, it must emphasize the important academic and research work that we all do, attaching importance to its connection with productive innovation, cooperation with the Region and local authorities. factors. We will seek the opinion of the Senate on every important issue, working in an environment of transparency and accountability,” emphasizes Mr. Kintzios.

“The challenge is to be able to assist the university in a process that involves some external partners and is trying to synthesize a new management philosophy to make extraversion successful.” remarks on “K” rector pan. Thessaly, Zisis Mamuris. As for the reaction to the law – even a friend close to N.D. The university federation’s leadership raised objections – Mr. Mamouris says: “I also react because the provisions could be improved, but throwing stones at the law does not offer solutions.”

Secrets of the electoral system

Elections of internal members of the Board of universities will be held according to the electoral system of rating voting. The main features of the system are that voting is conducted by one ballot, which gives the voter the opportunity to choose the candidates they want, regardless of the school or any type of grouping. In this way, as far as possible, representation of many different points of view is ensured without requiring the existence of organized factions. However, this is not a simple system. His “keys”. explains “K” Professor at the Agricultural University of Athens Sunday Sotirakoglu, on the example of her educational institution: “Agriculture” has six faculties, therefore, according to the new law, one candidate will be elected from each faculty. Voters vote for one to six candidates and rank them in order of preference.

The votes are counted in successive rounds, and in each round the candidate who reaches the electoral mark (defined as the sum of ones with the partial number of valid ballots divided by the number of eligible seats plus one) is elected first. , i.e. in this case 6+1=7), or the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. If a candidate is elected to the next preference of each of his electors, only the surplus of his votes in relation to the electoral measure is transferred, and in the event of a candidate’s rejection, all his votes are transferred to the next preference of each of his electors. his voters. Therefore, if a voter’s 1st preference cannot be elected, his vote is transferred to his 2nd preference, and so on. In addition, the algorithm takes into account each time that in the case of, for example, six departments of agriculture, only one candidate from each department can be elected. The rest are eliminated even if they received more votes than a candidate from another school. Although the electoral secret ballot system is considered to be the most proportional, under the above limitation, the procedure ceases to be proportional. Of course, the imposition of a cap is considered wise, as this avoids over-representation of large schools, and smaller schools are also given a step and representation.