And what after the failure of the exam? Where and what do 18-year-olds choose who do not want to take the USE again or do not want or cannot go to study abroad? The “K” represents the large pool of high school graduates who choose a path other than a public university: private colleges. These are young people from the middle and lower economic strata, but there are also people from wealthy families. Most college students did not choose them because they were “blocked” from public universities due to the minimum acceptance base (MBA) in force from 2021, which was recently brought to public debate by the official opposition.

By contrast, Brexit gave Greek private colleges “premium” students who can no longer study in the UK due to rising prices. Those who are “cut off from the EBE” choose Vocational Training Institutes (VETs). The combined number of college and IEK students in our country is approaching 100,000.

“I missed career counseling from school. Looking back, I found that I was not interested in political science, which was my original goal of studying at the university. Therefore, I decided to study business administration at a college in Athens, which is affiliated with a British university.” This was told to K by 22-year-old Sofia Kanellopulu.. “At Panhellenic, I got about 14,000 credits but didn’t get into the desired schools in the health sciences. I could have been accepted somewhere, but I preferred to study psychology in college.” 18-year-old Zaharias Offman adds his side to the “K”.

According to the Hellenic Colleges Association, there are a total of 28,063 students enrolled in the colleges in the current academic year 2022-2023, the vast majority of which are located in Athens and Thessaloniki. According to the Ministry of Education, there are 32 officially established colleges in Greece. However, there are 30 foreign universities with branches in Greece: 25 British, 2 French, 2 American and 1 Czech. The difference is due to the fact that a university can partner with more than two colleges and vice versa.

In the current 2022-2023 academic year, the number of college students increased by 10% compared to 2021-2022. “The increase is not due to the establishment of a minimum import base, but to Brexit. Many Greek children, who previously chose to study in the UK, now prefer the Greek College, which cooperates with a British university and functions as its branch in our country. In Britain now, due to Brexit, both the cost of education and the cost of living have risen, especially for a non-British citizen.” notes in “K” the President of the Association, Mr. Vassilis Daskalakis.

Research

Brexit has given Greek colleges “premium” students who, due to rising prices, cannot study in the UK.

According to the research of Mr. Yannis Kiouvrekis, Associate Professor at the Univ. Thessaly and Mr. Georgios Andrikopoulos, a research fellow at the same institution, seven out of ten (68%) students said they did not choose college as their first choice, while the remaining 32%. One in two (54%) decided to go to college because they were not accepted through Panheladdics to the Greek university they wanted. Justifying their choice of university, 43% indicated that they would like to study next to their parents. Regarding the socio-economic status of college students, 32% reported that their family’s financial situation is stable, 27% is consistently good, 24% is average, 13% is unsatisfactory, and 4% is very poor. good. Most college students study at the undergraduate level, with annual tuition fees for undergraduate programs ranging from €4,500 to €8,000 and for graduate students between €7,000 and €9,000.

Every fourth IEC student decided to return to school after completing their studies at the university!

“Study is not easy, the student must work to answer. We ask for a good command of English at the professional diploma level. For example, a student cannot take as many exams as they want to take a course. At the same time, of course, the audiences are small, when compared with state universities, attendance is mandatory, while there is student guidance from professors.” Mr. Ioannis Ververidis stated “K”, General Secretary of the Association of Hellenic Colleges. “Of course, all colleges do not have the same requirements, which are also related to which foreign university each college cooperates with,” adds Mr. Ververidis, estimating that children who do not go to state universities because they did not overcome the low EBE score at school, they go to IEK, not to private colleges.

In addition, the outgoing government attached great importance to the strengthening of public IEKs in the context of raising the level of post-secondary education and training. Thus, it allows those who failed the EBE to complete what is called a “parallel computer program” to qualify for a place in the public IEK. According to the General Secretariat for Vocational Education, Training and Continuing Education of the Ministry of Education, the electronic form that graduates of the Panhellenic Examinations in 2022 could complete contained 519 sections of the public IEC. In 2022, 13,472 students were admitted via a parallel computer system to the public IEK, with 20,432 applications submitted. In 2021, 8,594 students were accepted through the parallel computer program, with 22,790 applications submitted.

“I chose the specialty “Architectural and decorative interior design and object design”. It is this specialty that interests me, but I could not pass the general Greek exams at the corresponding department of the university. This specialty has very good professional prospects”, 19-year-old Anna-Maria Zuberi noted in a conversation with K.who studies at the public thematic IEC Aegaleo.

Professional education

The importance of vocational education and training has become vividly reflected in recent years against the backdrop of the economic crisis that the country has experienced. At that time, there was a growing interest in studying at the IEC. Characteristically, every fourth IEK student decided to return to school after graduation from the university. According to the KANEP-GSEE survey, in 2020, 23.9% of IEK students were university (9.9%) or TEI (9.2%) graduates, while 4.8% had a master’s or doctoral degree. The rest were high school (46.4%), TEE (11.5%) and IEK (18%) graduates. The percentage of IEC students with a previous higher education has increased by almost five times, since in 2012 the percentage of university graduates studying at IEC was 5.2%. The reason is clear: IEK is attended by unemployed university graduates who choose to specialize in a subject related to their studies in order to enter the labor market.

Numbers

They preferred IEK

22 790 applications submitted in 2021

8 594 students were admitted in 2021 through a parallel computer program in the public IEC.

20 432 applications submitted in 2022

13 472 students were admitted in 2022 through a parallel computer program in the public IEC.

1400 Candidates announced in 2022 the specialty of IT application specialist (web designer) and the same number of nursing specialties. These are the most popular specialties.

1000-1700 euros annual tuition fee in a private IEK.

Studying in college

28 063 are Greek college students in the current academic year 2022-2023. Compared to 2021-2022, there was an increase of 10%.

4500-8000 euros annual tuition fees for undergraduate college programs vary.

7000-9000 euros College postgraduate tuition fees vary.