April 10, 2011
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 that are competing with state universities and technical colleges in the country’s higher-education sector.
The colleges, which offer graduate and postgraduate courses on subjects from business management and law to tourism and hotel management, are not a homogenous group. Some, like the Alba Graduate Business School, are established educational centers from whose graduate pool local businesses systematically recruit. Others are newer, smaller institutions with less reliable academic credentials.
One of the conditions imposed on these colleges — to provide a €500,000, or $715,000, bank guarantee that would cover refunds of students’ tuition fees and staff wages in the event of the college’s closing — is incompatible with E.U. laws on freedom to offer and receive services, according to the European Commission.
Other restrictions, like the need for teachers at private colleges that have franchising agreements with foreign universities to meet certain academic requirements, constitute undue intervention by the Greek state, according to a letter from Brussels. The letter, dated Jan. 27, gives Greece two months to comply with E.U. law or face the European Court of Justice.
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