At least 45 university departments occupied by their students in Greece, gearing up for another winter of discontent
Only days after the new education bill was voted into law, bringing sweeping changes to Greece's higher education system (immense funding cuts, abolition of the academic asylum etc), students on the ground have been organising their response. So far, more than 45 university departments have been occupied by their students, following General Assemblies in each of them; many more are due to follow in the next few days.
In Athens, all 9 departments of the Polytechnic (NTUA) are now occupied; the entire Panteion (Social Sciences) University is also occupied, along with some departments of the University of Athens. There are also occupations in Patras, Thessaloniki and Chania (Crete), with the list growing by the hour.
A student demonstration has been called in Athens for Thursday, September 1st.
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Wave of Reforms Causes Chaos In Greek Universities
The situation at Universities and Technological Institutes of the country continues to be chaotic as a result of the new education bill passed by consensus in Parliament.
Group of students belonging to the Communist Party have blocked the entrance to the building of the University of Athens rectorate. They intend to do the same to the Technological Institutes of Athens and Piraeus, and the Research Centre. Similar protests will take place in other universities in Athens and other cities around Greece. Students are protesting against the new education law on universities and colleges.
University Occupations From Thessaloniki to Crete
At the same time, Panteion University is occupied by students and general meetings take place at all universities. According to data, the Technical University of Crete is under occupation and September's exam period in the University of Patras was postponed so that general assemblies of students would take place. Under occupation are schools of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH), where the Senate refused to postpone the examination period, an issue whilch will be probably re-examined in tomorrow's meeting. From 7.00 in the morning, students-members of the KKE party occupied the building of the Research Committee of AUTH, where they hung banners and shouted slogans against the participation of enterprises in research programs of the university, but also protested against the new bill.
Rallies and Summits
KKE students are planning a rally on Thursday, September 1, at 7.30 starting from the statue of Venizelos and symbolic occupations in other buildings of AUTH and invite all students to participate in general meetings of the Schools, to be held today and tomorrow so as to determine long-term mobilisations in the university.
Within the next days, the senates of other universities such as Athens and Patras are expected to have a series of meetings, in order to examine the situation and decide their next moves. On Friday, an extraordinary summit of Rectors will take place at the Technological Park of The Technical University of Athens (Metsovio) in Layrio.
On Monday 29th, exams at the University of Patras were normally held, but it was decided to stop them for one day so that the general meetings of students take place.
http://greece.greekreporter.com/2011/08/30/wave-of-reforms-causes-chaos-in-greek-universities/