Mitsotakis defends university bill amid student protests

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Friday defended a bill allowing, under certain conditions, the establishment of branches of foreign universities in Greece for the first time, saying that reforms would have a positive knock-on effect on their public counterparts. Lawmakers are set to vote on the bill later in the day.

"Finally, non-state, non-profit institutions will operate in our country," Mitsotakis said, highlighting that students will now have more options to pursue higher education within Greece.

"More than 40,000 Greeks study abroad. We aim to enable young people to attend reputable international universities without needing to leave their homeland," he said.

The conservative premier stressed that the primary objective is to modernize state universities, noting that 85 percent of the bill's provisions relate to public institutions. He added that the...