{"id":488148,"date":"2026-01-02T23:34:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T23:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/488148\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T23:34:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T23:34:11","slug":"greece-cuts-student-population-at-universities-by-half-after-long-study-breaks-are-abolished","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/488148\/","title":{"rendered":"Greece cuts student population at universities by half after long study breaks are abolished"},"content":{"rendered":"

ATHENS, Greece (AP) \u2014 More than 300,000 inactive university students have been removed from the rolls in Greece, cutting the country\u2019s official student population by nearly half, authorities said Friday.<\/p>\n

The move marks the end of a decadeslong practice \u2014 formally abolished in recent legislation \u2014 that allowed extended enrollment to facilitate lifelong learning and lengthy breaks for work.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the Education Ministry said that 308,605 students admitted to state-run universities\u2019 four-year degree programs before 2017 had been removed from the records.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudent status is not valid for life in any modern European university,” Education Minister Sofia Zacharaki said. “We want degrees with value, which reflect effort, skills and passion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ministry officials said that about 35,000 people successfully applied for reenrollment in 2025.<\/p>\n

Opponents of the conservative government’s reform, mostly from the academic community, argue the second-chance program failed to address the scale of disruption caused by Greece\u2019s severe financial crisis in the previous decade.<\/p>\n

The country’s active student population stands at just over 350,000, studying at 25 public higher education institutions, according to 2024 data from the Hellenic Authority for Higher Education.<\/p>\n

Undergraduate degree programs at state universities are normally funded by the government. Until recently, only public universities offering state-recognized degrees have operated in Greece. But recognized private universities<\/a> are gradually being introduced.<\/p>\n

Education Ministry officials said that dormant students \u2014 those who had interrupted their studies \u2014 didn’t impose any direct financial burden on universities, but created administrative difficulties.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith updated student lists, universities gain the ability to plan more precisely,\u201d Deputy Education Minister Nikos Papaioannou said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is a prerequisite for improving academic quality, daily operations and the criteria used to evaluate Greek universities in international rankings.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATHENS, Greece (AP) \u2014 More than 300,000 inactive university students have been removed from the rolls in Greece,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":488149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[529,64,220304,15394,16346,9708,3432,220307,220308,79,18217,220305,22849,3451,122662,30315,190238,3452,97952,4313,220302,4209,9106,220301,253,19544,17709,220298,220314,220310,220313,30980,220311,220312,255,34105,18219,220309,220300,220299,193889,5812,43742,220297,220303,26539,8727,16351,4837,220306,67,132,68,51996],"class_list":{"0":"post-488148","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-analysis","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-charting","11":"tag-charts","12":"tag-commodities","13":"tag-corn","14":"tag-data","15":"tag-e-mini-nasdaq","16":"tag-e-mini-sampp","17":"tag-economy","18":"tag-financial","19":"tag-foreign-exchange-markets","20":"tag-forex","21":"tag-futures","22":"tag-graph","23":"tag-historical","24":"tag-indicators","25":"tag-indices","26":"tag-intraday","27":"tag-investing","28":"tag-investment-timing","29":"tag-investments","30":"tag-market","31":"tag-market-timing","32":"tag-money-management","33":"tag-mutual-funds","34":"tag-nasdaq","35":"tag-novice-trader","36":"tag-otc-bb","37":"tag-penny-stock","38":"tag-penny-stock-picks","39":"tag-penny-stocks","40":"tag-pennystock","41":"tag-pennystocks","42":"tag-personal-finance","43":"tag-picks","44":"tag-quotes","45":"tag-real-time-quotes","46":"tag-realtime-charts","47":"tag-realtime-quotes","48":"tag-sampp-500","49":"tag-search","50":"tag-soybeans","51":"tag-stock-charting","52":"tag-stock-market-screening","53":"tag-stock-research","54":"tag-stocks","55":"tag-technical","56":"tag-trading","57":"tag-trading-tools","58":"tag-united-states","59":"tag-unitedstates","60":"tag-us","61":"tag-wheat"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}