Before the sun rose over Thessaloniki on Wednesday, Stergios Grigoriou and his fellow students surrounded the Greek metropolis’ main university campus and blocked off every entrance to it.
The act of defiance was not one-time. In a country where protest politics is big, students are on a mission: to pass a bill that, in order to bring order to rioting universities, predicts the creation of disciplinary boards and a special police force on campus. “Our claim is simple. The education bill must be withdrawn, “said Grigoriou. “It’s an oppressive law that does not serve the needs of a conservative single.”
In his third year of a business administration course, the 20-year-old admits that he now spends more time “on the front line” than behind his books. But he is far from alone. There are nationwide increasing student protests against the legislation, which is seen as the return of rights gained since the restoration of democracy in 1974.
As MPs would vote on the bill late on Thursday, after three days of heated debate, rioters marched with riot police in Athens and Thessaloniki, while opposition to the center-right government’s efforts to sharpen the sector intensified.
Inside the 300-seat house, tensions were also high as Alexis Tsipras, Syriza’s leader of the opposition, complained to the government for using the pandemic to pass unacceptable laws. Premier Kyriakos Mitsotakis maintained it is not the police but democracy that will be installed in colleges. “The goal is to give public universities back to their natural inhabitants,” he told the chamber.
One of Europe’s smaller countries, Greece, has 24 state universities and more than 600,000 students, reflecting how tertiary education is seen as a lever for social mobility. But chaos is also plentiful. Stories of lawlessness on Greek campuses – especially in Athens – are legion, partly attributed to a law that banned police from entering university campuses for a long time, in memory of those killed in 1973 when the colonel’s government revolted violently crushed the Polytechnic in Athens.
Although it was revoked by Mitsotakis within a few weeks of taking office in 2019, the legacy of the so-called asylum law continues. In urban centers, campuses formerly known as a no-go zone for police have become synonymous with crime and decay. Drug trafficking, sexual assault and the presence of anarchists and other anti-establishment groups on university grounds are all blamed for driving more and more Greeks to seek higher education abroad.
“We hear of outrageous violations of security, even professors being attacked in lecture theaters, and of vandalism and theft,” says Prof Kevin Featherstone, who teaches contemporary Greek studies at the London School of Economics. “Asylum rights born in another era have been grossly abused to the detriment of all.”
Criticism of the bill has focused on plans for an unarmed police force. Empowered to arrest students who are believed to be involved in criminal activities, the body of specially trained men and women of 1,030 people would be able to engage riot police if deemed necessary. For left-wing parties that have regarded the asylum law as sacred – and are mindful of the role of campuses as recruiting grounds – the prospect of any police presence is dangerous to erase the freedom of expression.
“No country in the world has police on university websites,” said Syriza education spokesman Nikos Filis, who said the entire academic community and even the police were against the proposals. “It is the government that is taking its law and order agenda to new heights. Why not reinstate the security guards who were fired when Greece signed in? [EU-mandated] austerity during the economic crisis? A police force will simply set fuel on fire. ‘
For Niki Kerameus, Athens’ minister of education and the architect of the reforms, the legislation greatly exceeds police oversight to only ‘four or five’ universities, she says, where the security problem is acute. “It is not a horizontal measure and in time the body can be removed even if it is no longer needed,” she told the Guardian. “That being said, it is simply not true to say that the police do not intervene elsewhere when criminal incidents take place on campuses, because that is how it is.”
At the age of 40, the Harvard-trained lawyer is one of the youngest ministers in government and dreams of Greece becoming an educational center in Southeastern Europe. To get there, she says, the country must finally grapple with the perennial problems that have plagued higher education. “Our tertiary education system has tremendous potential, as evidenced by the fact that so many of our graduates are going to study at the best universities abroad,” she said. “We just have to exploit that potential. And to do that, we need to take certain actions. ”
For the first time, the bill deals with the phenomenon of “eternal students” – 40% of Greek undergraduate students continue to study in middle age – as well as faculty evaluation and raising university admission standards.
“It is 2021,” the minister said, insisting that disciplinary committees are needed because rules have never been applied. ‘We have to deal with issues and act where there is offense, whether plagiarism or destruction of university property. It’s a common sense and not for a long time. It does not go right from left. It’s about what’s best for our universities and future generations. ”
Under Kerameus’ supervision, undergraduate courses in English began teaching as part of the effort to attract foreign students and forge partnerships with leading universities in the US and elsewhere. But it, too, has drawn criticism from the opposition, which accuses the government of privatizing tergier education at the expense of the public nature of universities.
Not all students are against it. Katerina Tsitomenea, a law graduate of the University of Athens, agrees that the changes are too late. “There are some strange species on campus and you do not always feel safe,” she said. “I have friends who study law in the UK, and I’m always amazed at how different the environment is at universities.”
For Featherstone, who sat as the first foreign member of Greece’s National Council for Research and Technology, the furore is tantamount to a culture war over how Greece should develop.
‘What we are seeing is part of a long-term conflict between two sides of Greek society. “One is international, seeks meritocracy, has liberal values and is striving for Greece to compete in the world,” he said. ‘The others are insular, fearsome, non-meritocratic, reject excellence and want academic institutions to work on different values. It’s a culture war through and through. ”