{"id":384300,"date":"2026-01-02T22:13:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T22:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/384300\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T22:13:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T22:13:13","slug":"greece-cuts-student-population-at-universities-by-half-after-long-study-breaks-are-abolished","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/384300\/","title":{"rendered":"Greece cuts student population at universities by half after long study breaks are abolished"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>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<p>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<p>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<p>\u201cStudent status is not valid for life in any modern European university,&#8221; Education Minister Sofia Zacharaki said. &#8220;We want degrees with value, which reflect effort, skills and passion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ministry officials said that about 35,000 people successfully applied for reenrollment in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Opponents of the conservative government&#8217;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<p>The country&#8217;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<p>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 <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/greece-protest-universities-farmers-athens-students-4d2ed4a924893aad6984db2f66445d1f\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">recognized private universities<\/a> are gradually being introduced.<\/p>\n<p>Education Ministry officials said that dormant students \u2014 those who had interrupted their studies \u2014 didn&#8217;t impose any direct financial burden on universities, but created administrative difficulties.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith updated student lists, universities gain the ability to plan more precisely,\u201d Deputy Education Minister Nikos Papaioannou said.<\/p>\n<p>\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,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384301,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[4687,28,187206,15035,938,5835,2788,187209,187210,101,9077,187207,8700,2177,41498,20568,160858,2178,70397,2994,187204,2796,3747,187203,19411,20112,921,187200,187215,5087,187214,9633,187212,187213,147,26513,9324,187211,187202,187201,106127,6826,5838,187199,187205,2996,923,89258,6007,187208,18447],"class_list":["post-384300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-analysis","tag-business","tag-charting","tag-charts","tag-commodities","tag-corn","tag-data","tag-e-mini-nasdaq","tag-e-mini-sampp","tag-economy","tag-financial","tag-foreign-exchange-markets","tag-forex","tag-futures","tag-graph","tag-historical","tag-indicators","tag-indices","tag-intraday","tag-investing","tag-investment-timing","tag-investments","tag-market","tag-market-timing","tag-money-management","tag-mutual-funds","tag-nasdaq","tag-novice-trader","tag-otc-bb","tag-penny-stock","tag-penny-stock-picks","tag-penny-stocks","tag-pennystock","tag-pennystocks","tag-personal-finance","tag-picks","tag-quotes","tag-real-time-quotes","tag-realtime-charts","tag-realtime-quotes","tag-sampp-500","tag-search","tag-soybeans","tag-stock-charting","tag-stock-market-screening","tag-stock-research","tag-stocks","tag-technical","tag-trading","tag-trading-tools","tag-wheat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}