Exam results spell trouble for some universities

Almost 73,000 teenagers received the good news Thursday that they have gained places at university or technical colleges (TEIs) but it appears that new questions are to be raised about the viability of some departments due to the low number of students who will be following courses there.

The Education Ministry Thursday published the results of university entrance exams, which showed that 72,763 senior high school leavers had achieved the marks need to advance to tertiary education. That was almost 1,000 more than last year.

Education authorities expect that the pressure on universities in Greece’s big cities will grow over the coming days as the government has decided to allow students who have been accepted at regional institutions to transfer to colleges in urban areas. It is expected that more than 20,000 of the freshmen will ask for transfers from the institutions to which they have been accepted.

The lack of interest in a number of university and TEI departments meant that the pass grade to qualify for spots there fell to below 50 percent. That was the case for 121 of a total of 450 departments at tertiary institutions and suggests the government may soon have to examine whether some of these need to be merged or scrapped.