The Article 16 It was at the heart of the House's Constitutional Review Committee, with ND and PASOK actually converging in favour of the operation non-state universities. Their difference is that while the ND calls for the opening of Article 16 to private or non-state AEIs, PASOK says "yes" only to non-states, calling for explicit constitutional registration of the non-profit character.
"The New Democracy proposes the revision of Article 16 S. in the direction of the coexistence of Public and Private or Non-State Nonprofit Universities that will be called Legal Persons of University Education," said ND's rapporteur Euripidis Stylianidis.
The rapporteur of the ND even, citing Cyprus, which derives 6% of its GDP from higher education, stressed that Greece is excluded from the market thanks to the "tragic idea of some political forces or outdated guilders that constitute the dictatorship of mediocrities".
Constitutional registration of non-profit character asks PASOK
For its part, the special rapporteur for PASOK Nadia Giannakopoulou declared open to non-state AEIs. However, as he said, the government's proposal provides for higher education by legal persons who may have a "public or private character", with the sole guarantee of "high-level assurance of the studies provided", without any mention being made of the word "non-profit".
This omission, he said, "opens the door wide to the speculative, business university, without social mission registration, without certification and supervision by an independent authority, without any guarantee of accessibility." She proposed explicit constitutional guarantee of a non-profit nature, strict authorisation and supervision by an independent authority.
Although PASOK's proposals are "very close" to these NDs, as the MPs themselves admit, the party insists on its position not to vote for any of the proposed articles in this proposed Parliament.
"No" in the revision of 16 by SYRIZA, KKE, NIKI, "yes" by Greek Solution
His opposition to non-state universities was voiced by SYRIZA's rapporteur Theophilus Xanthopoulos, who made it clear that his party speaks "for a public university rather than a state" and accused the government that by its law "the former colleges were renamed to private AEIs". At the same time, he closed his speech with the poem of Nobel laureate José Saramago "Let the dream be privatised", ending with the verse "Private in the finale and@@@ the mother who gave birth to you".
Negative and KKE MP Aphrodite Ktenas, who stressed that "the presumption of high quality Greek AEI is due to their public character", and accused the government of commercialising education. The government's bill for non-state universities is "a vulgar cloning of the Anglo-Saxon system in the Balkan version," said independent Nasos Iliopoulos.
"No" in the review of Article 16 says NIKI, with George Ruda stressing that the party "supports the public and non-profit character of university education".
On the contrary, Stelios Fotopoulos of the Greek Solution said that "our proposal is the parallel functioning of public and private AEIs with the simultaneous abolition of the psychophorous nationwide examinations.".