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Greece: Hopelessly out of it on higher education…

… and stubborn as a damn mule about it. The country runs a disgraceful state university system, but won’t give equal rights to private universities because it knows a monopoly when it sees one.

Many of the private schools are better than the state schools.

This is not hard to accomplish.

“The way [the private schools] operate reveals to Greek parents the ills of universities,” [the head of a group of private colleges] said, referring to the crowded classes and lax monitoring of student attendance often complained about in the state sector.

… “No other public sector university environment in the E.U. is as self-centered as Greece’s,” said Jens Bastian, a senior fellow at the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy.

He said lack of competition had hindered innovation and led to many outstanding students and academics continuing their careers abroad.

“When did you last hear of a stand-out Greek research paper?” he said.

The EU has had it. They just sent the Greeks a letter saying they’re going to sic the European Court of Justice on them if they don’t join the rest of the world.

Margaret Soltan, April 11, 2011 1:52PM
Posted in: foreign universities

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4 Responses to “Greece: Hopelessly out of it on higher education…”

  1. Farah Says:
    April 12th, 2011 at 4:05AM

    Not sure what lack of competition has to do with it. The US has some dreadful unis, with lots of competition. The UK is generally agreed to be pretty decent even at the bottom end, but has only one private university.

  2. Daniel S. Goldberg Says:
    April 12th, 2011 at 8:22AM

    Ioannidis is without a doubt one of the most important scholars in his field, and, quite possibly, on the planet.

  3. AYY Says:
    April 12th, 2011 at 10:34AM

    Slightly OT, UD, did you see the recent WSJ article on universities in India? I’m afraid that it’s not very positive.
    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703515504576142092863219826.html

  4. Margaret Soltan Says:
    April 12th, 2011 at 6:39PM

    AYY : No – hadn’t seen it. Thanks for the link. Opening it now.

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