Rising dropout rate research and increasing the time required to complete the degree, which were published in Kathimerini on Sunday (03/19/22), reinforce the prospect of the obsolescence of higher education in our country. The crisis primarily concerns the middle class, which is overrepresented among students. Universities are at a historical crossroads, where the old does not work and the new has not yet been born.

To avoid obsolescence, many new high-skill jobs need to be created by strengthening the “knowledge economy” and filled with properly trained people. To do this, the orientation of universities that prevailed in the past must change. From the public sector and education, move on to preparing our graduates for employment, primarily in the private sector. Especially in the one that has an export orientation, increasing its competitiveness and expanding. In addition, it is necessary to expand the educational opportunities of students and put their quality education at the center of the daily work of educational institutions.

How can we achieve this?

In recent years, steps have been taken towards, on the one hand, increasing the academic abilities of incoming students, with the establishment of a minimum admission base, and, on the other hand, connecting universities with the labor market and strengthening their role in the development of innovative entrepreneurship. But the steps must then become jumps. There is a need to further strengthen the strategic capacity, internal flexibility and autonomy of universities, always in parallel strengthening the institutional balances of control and accountability of all their administrative bodies. So that they can be restructured by merging and abolishing their departments and establishing new curricula in the context of wider schools. Enriching the offered training and student choice with modern, in-demand subjects that improve the career prospects of graduates. With a strategic plan assessed by ETHAAE and assignment to the institutions themselves of the distribution in schools of the total number of accepted students determined by the ministry for each institution. With a simultaneous increase in state funding for those institutions that are better connected to the labor market, so that they acquire strong incentives in this direction.

It is also necessary – without further delay – to strengthen the technology sector with a focus on the application of science and technology in the workplace. With the necessary institutional distinction in the context of the university sector, suitable criteria for the certification of programs and mandatory internships of longer duration. With priority on areas of study that, despite still high unemployment and underemployment of graduates, are already experiencing a large shortage of properly trained personnel in the labor market (IT, tourism, green development, services for the elderly, etc.) .

There is still a need to expand student internships in companies through the use of available public resources for debt and private, as well as their exemption from taxation. Subsidizing the premiums of those companies that retain interns can create an effective fast track from higher education to employment, boost interest in graduation, and reinforce the shift in demand from the public to the private sector. Organizing teacher education exclusively in the second cycle of education, for the number of those who have a real chance to work as a teacher, will also contribute to a strategic shift by limiting the so-called “unappointed teachers”.

To move universities towards student-centered learning, it is necessary, first of all, to bring admission closer to the preferences of students, which, paradoxically, is best achieved when the number of possible preferences in computer science is sharply reduced to single digits. In addition, enrolling in a School that offers different programs (instead of specialized departments) expands the choice of students, increases the interest and attractiveness of study. An important role can also be played by updating teaching methods in the direction of “active learning” with modern teaching aids and workshops, electronic resources and books, as well as with the support of the recently established teaching and methodological centers of universities. While the revision and restructuring of curricula by harmonizing their structure and duration with European developments, where three years of study predominates, will contribute to a more complete and timely completion of studies without compromising the quality of education.

Real empowerment of students and increase in completion rates cannot be achieved if, for financial reasons, not everyone can study what they are interested in. For this reason, it is necessary to strengthen scholarships for the best, loans for all – with a gradual payment proportional to academic success, and repaying them only when they can – as well as the expansion of student housing, with PPPs for faster completion and their better functioning.

The steps taken over the past three years must be continued with even greater courage and determination. As the prime minister recently emphasized in his speech at the Concert Hall, “we still have a lot of work to do in universities.”

*Former Secretary General of Higher Education