At the emblematic University of Athens, the rate of failure in course exams fluctuates steadily around 80%. “If you pass this course, you will have a half degree!” say the students, complaining about the tormenting professor – that’s how his colleagues in “K” described him – who not only teaches a difficult course, but is also a “detailist” in grades. Who’s guilty? Strict professor, unprepared students, teaching methods and exams? The National Higher Education Authority (ETHAAE) through the certification reports of the faculties of Greek universities highlights the problem of high failure rates in some courses. In this context, he criticizes the institutions for their lack of intention to study and combat this. Of course, there are institutional instruments, but they look like “complaint boxes” in public services. They are wiped in the corner as the students don’t believe if the report becomes popular. And it is right. Complaints are not accepted.

A total of 1400 students declared that in a few days they would take part in the examinations in the critical course of the first year of the Athens School of Law and another 1083 in one of the fourth (last) courses. Queues are also formed in complex courses of Civil Law, Criminal Law and Public Law compositions, in which the failure rate can approach 45%. The Polytechnic School of the University of Patras is famous for the “mythical level of complexity”, as it is called, an engineering course with a failure rate approaching 75%-80%. At NTUA, about 600 students out of 1,300 registered apply for engineering courses that are considered very challenging. Mathematics also makes the task more difficult for economics students, with the failure rate approaching 70%. In one of the universities of the country there was a student who read the course 11 times until he passed it! “You will find courses with a high failure rate in exams. We all remember strict professors from our student years, especially in large schools such as natural sciences, polytechnics, economics, law, and philology. But, obviously, we cannot name the courses, since the teachers act within the framework of academic freedom,” AUTH Dean Nikos Papaioannou told K.

“A significant number of reports on the certification of schools in Greek universities indicate that the percentage of graduates exceeds the prescribed n + 2, that is, the minimum time spent in school and an additional two years as a margin for graduation. Examination halls are filled with even three times as many students as are enrolled in a given year of study, and are led like “sheep to the test slaughter”, as only 10% or 20% of examinees pass the exams,” said “K” colleague Professor Georgios- Ioannis Nichas, member of ETHAAE and professor emeritus at the Agricultural University of Athens.

In a conversation with K, the new rector of the University of Piraeus, Michalis Sfakianakis, said that courses with a high rejection rate would be recorded during the examination periods in February and June so that the reasons could be studied and action taken. “All universities have such courses. It is wrong to pretend that we do not see it. And the teacher is also responsible. There are scholars who set high examination standards because they believe that students should know as much as they do. They consider students to be full-fledged scientists. However, this is not the only reason for the big failure,” notes Mr. Sfakianakis.

“There are scholars who set high examination standards because they believe that students should know as much as they do.”

“It is customary to place the ‘blame’ for a high failure rate on a quirky, ‘astute’ teacher. This explanation is clearly inadequate when the failure rate in certain courses, such as Calculus, is important over time and no matter who the teacher is. In my experience over the years, a professor is called “difficult” when he tries to keep the course – teaching and exams – at a decent (in his opinion) level. But even in these cases, and because no one likes that hundreds of students study in their courses, they try to use whatever is convenient to “normalize” the grade, even to some extent “dilute their wine” – notes NTUA rector Andreas Butuvis. Moreover, as he adds, “failure in a large percentage of cases—i.e. 60% of the examinees, except for those who pass the practical white glue – at the undergraduate level at NTUA, but in general in Greek universities, it is observed mainly in the courses of the first semesters. New students need to take a break from the previous period of preparation for the Hellenic entrance exams. Relaxation is facilitated by the absence of restrictions, a world first in Greece: no restrictions on the number of courses required to participate in exams or enroll in a semester of study, no restrictions on the number of exams that can be taken in a course and (until recently) no upper limit on study time (type n+2, etc.) and compulsory course systems.” This is how lessons accumulate. In fact, there was a student at NTUA who claimed in one semester that he was taking exams in 63 courses.

The nature of the course, the high degree of difficulty of examination subjects, or the idiosyncrasy of the instructor are not the only reasons for high failure. “Not all students are at the same level in terms of knowledge and learning culture. And that’s because at the Faculty of Law, we accept almost the same number of transfer students compared to the positions originally assigned by the Ministry of Education. It is indicative that in 2022 we accepted 403 students through the Hellenic Examinations, and their number increased by 397 from the other admission categories,” said Linos-Alexandros Sisilianos, dean of the Faculty of Law of Athens, in an interview with K.

“Don’t criticize strict teachers. Look from the other side: there are teachers of elective courses who give high marks so that the course is popular, and professors give more essays, ”says K, an associate professor at the University of Crete, pointing out that this subject has many aspects. studying.

The 5% rule and other evaluation filters

“In universities abroad, failure in exams by more than one percent, for example 5%, causes a headache for the university and teachers, who have to justify themselves to the competent authorities for what they were guilty of. For example, insufficiently taught subjects were included in the exams, there is no contagiousness and sociability of the teacher, etc. This information is derived from the judgments of students who evaluate lecturers and is indirectly used as leverage to improve the quality of education. At the same time, the teacher first of all looks for reasons in the way and type of his teaching, the requirements of the course, the level of learning of his audience and adjusts the assessment accordingly. For example, points are distributed on the basis of the highest and lowest marks,” Georgios-Ioannis Nichas, a member of the National Higher Education Authority, told K. In contrast, in Greece, the problem of courses with a high failure rate does not seem to exist, at least not recorded in the certification reports of higher education schools. This is facilitated by the fact that there are no reports of students complaining about high failure rates or about themselves failing the same course multiple times.

“Abroad, students demand an explanation and full justification for their failure through institutional processes that are recorded and examined. Students’ assessments are taken seriously, unlike university departments in our country, where students’ assessments are practically not taken into account,” says Mr. Nychas. In Greece, of course, student associations and factions usually take it upon themselves to complain – often with… grumbling – to teachers about big failures in their course exams.

“In Greece, only a few departments investigate failures in the course in an organized and systematic way. In most cases, the question is justified by the academic freedom of the teacher,” emphasizes ETHAAE President Periklis Mitkas, saying “K” on this occasion. “I still remember the names of professors whose courses were considered too difficult. Of course, there are difficulties with assessment, but no one can force a university student to do something,” AUTH student lawyer Teofano Papazisi, a law professor, told K.

Mr. Mitkas adds that “student underachievement increases when grades are assessed only at the end-of-semester exam. Almost everyone agrees that the most effective way to evaluate a student is to take midterm exams during the semester and write tests. This helps students who usually – especially if the course is optional – study the course a few days before the exam on it. However, such a case requires additional teaching staff. In extreme cases, as NTUA rector Andreas Butuvis explains, “The school may assign someone else – or even someone else – to teach a particular course to see if there will be any difference in bounce rates. For example, the second can be done in the context of teaching in parallel sections with different teachers, which is useful in any case in the case of basic courses with a large audience. While this may be considered pejorative of a faculty member, faculty members should nevertheless be able to teach a range of courses in an undergraduate program, not just 1-2 courses in their entire academic life as faculty numbers rise and fall. “Rotation” in training is a well-established practice in good universities around the world.

The law, however, allows a student who has not taken the course more than 3 times to request to be examined by a committee of professors other than the professor. “To my knowledge, the committee rarely changed noticeably from the previous teacher,” notes Mr. Buduvy. In addition, if a student can take exams in a course as many times as he wants, then why should he dare to “bother” with a professor? Someday the wheel will turn…

Exam “walls” in schools

1400 students declared participation in the examinations of the first year of the Athens School of Law.
600 students – out of 1300 registered students – announce engineering courses at NTUA.
11 times the student passed the exam in the course before passing it at a large regional university.
63 courses an NTUA student applied for the semester exam.
70% approaches underachievement in mathematics of economic schools.