The Minister of Education Konstantinos Arvanitopoulos has invited administrative staff and the Rectors to meet on Friday to discuss the critical issues at hand, on the condition however that the universities reopen. The Minister of Education will meet the Rectors individually as follows:

On Friday the 22nd of November

  • At 13:00 with the Rector of the National Technical University of Athens Simos Simopoulos
  • At 13.30 with the Rector of the Athens University of Economics Konstantinos Gatsios
  • At 14:00 with the Rector of the University of Patra Giorgos Panagiotakis

On Saturday the 23rd of November

  • At 11:00 with the Rector of the University of Athens Theodosis Pelegrinis
  • At 14:00 with the Rector of the University of Ioannina Triantafyllos Albanis

On Wednesday the 27th of November

  • At 10:00 with the Rector of the University of Thessaloniki Yannis Mylopoulos
  • At 12:00 with the Rector of the University of Crete Evripidis Stefanou
  • At 14:00 with the Rector of the University of Thessaly Yannis Messinis

Mr. Arvanitopoulos is also scheduled to meet with the presidents of the administrative staff unions that are currently participating in the suspension plans and strikes.

On Thursday the First Instance Courts in Athens ruled that the administrative staff strike was illegal, with the striking employees claiming that their ongoing strike action is covered by their Federation. The Ministry of Education is now considering seeking action against the Federation on Friday.

The Rector of the University of Thessaloniki and chairman of the Rector Synod Yannis Mylopoulos commented that the Minister’s invitation was a move in the right direction, while the Rector of the Aegean University Paris Tsartas noted that the Ministry should also have invited the Rector Synod to participate in the discussions.

Meanwhile New Democracy’s student party DAP has planned a demonstration outside the central Propylaea building of the University of Athens, demanding that the administrative employees abandon their strike to allow the universities to reopen.

Mylopoulos responds in writing

The Rector of the University of Thessaloniki Mylopoulos issued a written response to the Minister of Education, where he explained that a meeting today is not possible: “It is very pleasing that after two months of repeated requests for a meeting you took the initiative to invite us. Unfortunately I was notified of your invitation after 10pm last night, which does not allow me to attend the meeting today”.

Mr. Mylopoulos further explained that the Rectors of 5 of the 8 universities affected by the suspension and have been invited to participate in the discussion are not in Athens and similarly have prior commitments to attend to and noted that he is available on Monday.

Minister clarifies intention of meeting

Minister Arvanitopoulos later appeared on ANT1 TV’s morning variety show and reported that his invitation does not concern the suspension measure, but rather the administrative reform that needs to take place. The Minister claimed that while all 36 universities reported that they were understaffed, the Ministry estimated that 8 universities were overstaffed.

Mr. Arvanitopoulos tried to justify the upcoming layoffs by claiming that the universities were rife with corruption and cronyism and asserted that the majority of suspended administrative employees would be transferred to municipal services and other universities with staff shortages.