The new structure for the organization and operation of postgraduate programs based on the new law 4957/2022 is a circular recently issued by the Ministry of Education. All postgraduate degrees must be certified by the National Higher Education Authority (ETHAAE). In addition, a special element is that teachers will be paid (if they are paid) only from postgraduate tuition fees and other resources of the university, and not from the state funding of the university. While this does not lead to the institutional abolition of free master’s degrees, it “forces” teachers and universities to receive only paid master’s degrees. At the same time, the rectors told K that the almost 4,000-word circular not only clarifies the law, but also regulates a number of issues, and therefore can cause objections and appeals.

In particular, as stated in the circular, significant changes are taking place in the institutional structure, which concern both the process (criteria, role of the National Higher Education Authority, etc.) through which postgraduate programs are created, as well as the conditions for selecting students and transitional provisions for pre-existing legal postgraduate programs.

Approximately, among other things, it is provided:

• Post Graduate Education Committee Established
• Those postgraduate education programs that were created before the entry into force of Law No. 4957, adopted on 07/21/2022, as well as those whose creation process began before the start of the new one, continue to operate legally.
• New programs must be certified for the first time by the National Higher Education Authority (ETHAAE) no later than 12/31/2024, otherwise they stop accepting new students and are valid only until the graduation of students already enrolled in the academic year 2024-2025
• Accordingly, there is a corresponding provision for the completion of the process of establishing a postgraduate program, since the proceedings for the establishment of the program were initiated before the adoption of the new law, but the process of their establishment was not completed through the publication of the decision to establish the new program in the Government Gazette.
• All programs in force at the time of the entry into force of Law 4957/2022, as well as those established after entry into force under the previous structure, must file with the National Office of Higher Education in order to be certified for the first time.
• Failure to evaluate and certify existing and ongoing programs. after 12/31/2024 makes the new student registration program illegal from the 2024-2025 academic year, while it continues to operate only temporarily until the completion of the studies of already registered students.
• The Postgraduate Regulations regulate, in accordance with the characteristics and needs of each university, issues related to the minimum and maximum number of admissions to the program organized by the university, the maximum number of specializations, the policy for determining tuition fees, the upper limit of tuition fees for the programs of the departments of each school of the university, the training procedure feasibility study and methodology for compiling program budgets.
• All categories of teachers can be paid exclusively from the funds of the magistracy. Payment of remuneration or other benefits from the state budget or the public investment program is not allowed. Thus, all postgraduate teachers cannot be paid from funds coming from the state budget or the public investment program, but only from program funds.