Greek universities must improve and attract more overseas students. That's the message from recent comments made by the Greek Minister of Education and Religious Affairs, Ms. Niki Kerameos.
Speaking whilst visiting the United States, Ms. Kerameos said: "... we can now talk about a new era of upgrading and extroversion of our Higher Education Institutions. Our steady goal, in collaboration with all stakeholders, is to make Greece an international education center, which will attract students from all over the world..."
Expanding on these comments in an interview with The Financial Times, the Minister explained that Greek universities had traditionally been inward-looking institutions but that it was now time that they became more international in outlook and tried to attract more overseas students. She told the FT that she hoped there would be 40,000 to 50,000 overseas students studying English-language courses in Greece by 2024.
She outlined government plans to enable universities to leverage their assets to generate income, for example by offering Summer Schools, and added that universities participating in this drive could attract extra state funding.
A move in this direction has already been made by the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens which has launched a BA Program in the Archaeology, History, and Literature of Ancient Greece - a new 4-year, English-language Classics degree course aimed at non-EU undergraduates, especially those from China.
Cambridge University collaborates extensively with Greek institutions and has deepened its ties through the recently-launched Cambridge Centrre for Greek Studies which aims to to become an international hub for pioneering research in cross-disciplinary Greek studies.