Students challenge minister to stay at run-down dorm

A group of students from the National Technical University of Athens challenged Education Minister Costas Gavroglou to spend one night at their dorm after presenting a set of damning photographs illustrating poor safety and sanitation conditions to one of his close aides.

"Just a few photos suffice to illustrate the situation," Nikos Fasas, a member of the Students' Struggle Front, told Kathimerini, producing the snaps of destroyed communal areas, broken windows, rusted water pipes, moldy walls and broken toilets.

The situation is unlikely to get better, however, as demand for dorm accommodation across Greece has spiked by around 50 percent since the start of the crisis.

According to ministry data, the number of rooms at dorms or hotels rented out by universities represent just 9 percent of the 150,000 or so students studying away from home.