It's funny how in this country the major issues all happen at the same time: same-sex marriage and childbearing, the purchase of F-35s, the reduction of compensation to farmers, the inquiry into the Tempi tragedy, etc. The proposal for the establishment of private universities was also part of this package. It is an issue that has received great reactions and brought great mobilization from the student associations and society in general. So, after much thought (in the student dormitory of a public English university) I have formed my opinion: here is the story of John, Nick and Dimitris.
The eclipse of technical education
Let's start with Dimitris. Dimitris didn't do well in the Panhellenic exams, because the lessons were never his strong point. However, his family pushed him towards going to further studies. These further studies could be in a technical school in which Dimitri would find his inclination towards a craft. What is more, he could get some manual labor job and learn that trade. All this, of course, stopped being an option with the advent of private Universities. His parents found a solution to his poor performance in the national exams and managed to make their own dream come true and send him to a private university.
From Dimitris' story we see the phenomenon of the eclipse of technical education and the devaluation of technical professions. The problem will only be exacerbated by private Universities, because they provide yet another avenue to choosing higher education over everything else. But let's be realistic: university is not for everyone. I do not say this in a derogatory way: each person has their own temperament which often deviates from any academic path. If we prevent them from their inclination, unfortunately, for something we consider "superior", two things will happen: we destroy their mental health, excluding them from what they are interested in, but also depriving them of the opportunity to show their potential where they have real talent. Apart from the purely individual point of view, at the economic level, we have industries (construction, trade jobs, agriculture, etc.) that are frantically looking for people to no avail, with private universities adding fuel to the fire.
The rich... get richer!
Yannis grew up in a wealthy family in Thessaloniki. He was not pressured at school because he knew that he always had the option to go to a private university, so serious effort would have been a waste of time. Thus, he got into the school he wanted from the beginning, without the stress of national exams. He was able to find a house in Athens with relative ease and at a bargain price, since the national exams results have yet to be announced. At the same time, Nikos has also been admitted in a course with the same subject, but at a public university. He waits for the the results, rushes to find a house but with the huge increase in rents and the high demand from all the new entrants to university, he finds a house that his family has difficulty maintaining.
So we look at both of them over the years: John is living comfortably and doing his homework, and has spare time to start a volunteer job in his field and build his resume. Nick, on the other hand, has to work some shifts to make ends meet, so volunteer experience will have to wait. They both continue with their jobs and pass their classes. However, they both struggle with statistics. John finds help from his university and asks more questions about the course. Nick finds nothing similar in the understaffed public university. John, with some grade "help" but also expert preparation support, passes the course, unlike Nick. The situation goes like this to the point where Nikos still has three courses to complete for his degree, while John graduates. Nikos goes to take the three classes, but the university is occupied by protesters. Finally, after two months, he manages to make it. Yannis finishes his conscription first and gets a job. Nikos finishes his conscription and the market asks him for experience. He drops his standards and starts a job that pays less than John's and thus opens a gap that will never close.
It's not John's fault, nor his family's. Both are doing the best they can with the circumstances they are given. So are Nick and his family. It's just that Nick doesn't get the same treatment as John. Yes, life is unfair. Of course, we can try and not change a system that, despite its problems, brought out the most meritorious people and is therefore fairer. Because now, even in education, a closed system is being built to favour people from higher incomes. But without the private universities, wouldn't these people go abroad? Probably. It's not the perfect solution, but it's a sacrifice that must continue to make if we ever want to talk about meritocracy in Greece. I understand the criticism that the Panhellenic exams are not the most meritocratic means of evaluation, but they are much more meritocratic than buying one's admission to university.
Conclusions and the future of private HEIs
Private universities are not coming to our rescue. Even if they are made to be accessible by national exams only (as has been heard in recent discussions) they will still appeal to those with the income for tuition. In the future, if the bill actually passes, the debate will change. The backdoor will open and whereas now we are debating whether universities should exist, we will end up debating the need to reduce their tuition fees to make them accessible to more people. Then the solution will come: the only way to lower tuition is to have competition, so why not revise the Constitution to bring for-profit universities into the game? This is what is at stake with this bill. Because let's not forget something about free competition: the attractiveness of the private universities to each other will be determined not only on the level of quality of the studies offered but also on the certainty of graduating, without a problem. At the very least we'll get rid of the failing students...
