Claims that state universities are systematically underfunded are ‘fake news’, education minister says

Education Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis on Thursday dismissed accusations that the government is underfunding and downgrading state universities in order to promote private education, pointing out that “the funding given to public universities this year is very large and exceeds one billion euros.” Speaking in Parliament about the ministry’s draft bill on vocational education and training, he said the reform was the first of many that will follow. He attacked those objecting to the changes in higher education, saying that “many inaccuracies and fantastic scenarios” had been heard, especially that the government was reducing funding for state universities. “This clearly is not the case…the numbers speak for themselves. In 2018, the funding through the regular budget for state universities in Greece was 92 million euros. Last year it exceeded 133 million euros, having risen by 41 million euros,” he said.

In addition to funds from the regular budget, if one added sums from other sources, the total funding to state universities exceeded one billion euros, he said. “Should it be further increased? Definitely yes. No one in this room disagrees with this. But to say that funding is reduced when the funding has systematically increased is nothing but fake news,” the minister added.