Their degrees are not recognized, but they remain popular with students Many scholars think of Greece as the ancient birthplace of higher learning, where Plato's academy thrived
Greece is facing the prospect of legal action by the European Union unless it satisfies Brussels that it will lift a series of restrictions on private colleges.
The Greek Parliament passed a controversial education bill this month that sparked rioting in the streets of Athens. Police said it was the worst unrest the city had seen for years. At least 20 people were injured, 47 were detained, and 11 were arrested, the Associated Press reported.
University of Indianapolis announced on Wednesday that it was no longer accepting new students to Indianapolis Athens College for the summer summer and that all undergraduate courses and most graduate courses would stop on August 31
Debate has intensified in recent weeks and months in Greece over the possibility of giving privately run colleges university status, which is currently prohibited by Article 16 of the Greek constitution, write Tino Bromme and Barnaby Britten for The PIE News. Discussions were ignited when opposition leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis seized the occasion of a parliamentary debate on constitutional reform in October to demand the abolishment of the barrier to private universities. Higher education institutions have always been state-owned entities in Greece and their faculty members public servants. However, policy was created during the 1967-74 military junta to prevent communists creating private universities. This principle has since been enshrined in Article 16, adopted in the new constitution of 1974. Some argue that now its function has been inverted, with the left using the exclusion of private providers to defend public education.