OUR Senate decides on the external members of the councils of universities in the event that their internal members are divided into groups, each of which claims to be elected chancellor. This decision was preferred by his leadership. Ministry of Education on the issue that arose during its implementation new university management system.

In particular, on the basis of the new management system defined by law 4957/2022, the board of the university consists of 11 members: it consists of 6 members of the university elected by their colleagues, and 5 external members (famous persons with important work) who are elected by 6. However, during the elections, the following problem arose. With a vote of 6 for the selection of external members, the result was 3-3. This hides behind-the-scenes proceedings between the six members. That is, during the election of internal members, candidates “descend” into groups of six people. Whichever group manages to win a majority of the 6 seats on the council (i.e. at least 4), it will be able to choose 5 external members and eventually form a majority on the council of 11 members. Thereafter, the majority group will elect a dean of their choice from among the six.

Amendment of the Ministry of Education to solve the problem that arose with the councils of universities.

Today, in the universities of Thessaly, the Aegean, and Macedonia, no group has a majority on the council, but none of them has decided to back down. Thus, successive votes for outside members result in a tie. The original agreement-directive of the Ministry of Education was for the members of the council to agree on a decision, but this failed, resulting in the elections being re-announced.

Last Tuesday, in an amendment to the Home Office bill, the Department of Education decided that if there was a deadlock in the six internal council members after the second election, then responsibility for appointing the external council members would pass to the Senate.

Regarding the issue, PASOK’s head of education, Hara Kefalidou, criticized Minister Niki Kerameos, stating that “the portrayal of successive amendments to university governance is really disappointing. The negligence of Kerameo’s legislation in the field of higher education leads universities to a lack of governance, which exacerbates the accumulated problems. A month ago, a corresponding amendment was adopted, which was supposed to resolve the issue. Roughly speaking, at the last moment, before the end of her term, the leadership of the Ministry of Education makes another rude amendment to deal with the chaos she created.”