PM Mitsotakis chairs meeting on state universities and 'eternal' students

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Monday chaired a meeting with the leadership of the education ministry at the Maximos Mansion to discuss measures relating to state universities. The meeting focused primarily on removing so-called "eternal students" from student registers while giving those making genuine efforts to get their degrees a last chance to do so.
"This clearing of the university registers will have many significant benefits as regards the qualitative characteristics of universities, in terms of evaluation indicators, as for the first time we will have a real picture of who is a student and who is really studying," the prime minister said.
"But I also want to dwell on the very important provision of a last chance for those students who have demonstrably shown that they are interested in completing their studies and to those provisions for the students who may, for health reasons, have a particular, special difficulty in completing their course programmes," he added.
"This measure is, therefore, absolutely balanced but also implements our core commitment to proceed with an absolutely necessary clearance of the universities' student registers, distinguishing between inactive and active students, so that universities can know precisely who they are addressing and plan accordingly," Mitsotakis concluded.
The prime minister also sent a message to young people who are now entering university, stressing the importance of completing their courses on time and not delaying. Mitsotakis clarified that this is not a punitive measure by the state, but a form of encouragement in a highly competitive environment:
    “ Since the state provides free public education, our young students should also live up to their responsibilities. But they should do it primarily for themselves - not for us, not for their parents, not for anyone else.”
   During the meeting, government sources said, new legislation was presented that will give older students that have made proven efforts to complete their studies a final opportunity to get their degree. The proposal is that students who have completed 75% of their course units and successfully participated in at least two examination periods in the last two academic years will have the right to extend their studies for another two semesters. If they must also submit a dissertation or practical report, this is extended to three semesters.
This will cover an estimated 35,000 older and still active students.
In addition to this category, it was reaffirmed that inactive students enrolled in four-year programmes who had already exceeded the standard duration of their studies by the 2021-22 academic year will be removed from the student registry this coming September, as the four-year grace period granted at the time is set to expire soon.
As was pointed out, there are currently students that first enrolled in the 1930s still on the register, while there are tens of thousands who enrolled in the '60s, '70s and '80s.
The meeting also addressed legislation relating to security on university grounds.

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