Sit-in

After two months of university occupations in protest at new legislation allowing the establishment of non-state universities in Greece, the vast majority of students are expected to return to classes on Tuesday.

In fact, most occupations had already ended by Friday. At the peak of the mobilizations, approximately 200 schools were shut down by protesters.

Just hours after police disbanded a sit-in protest at the Law School of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in northern Greece, students have reclaimed the space on the premises. 

Additionally, a rally has been scheduled for 11 a.m. at the rectors' office.

Students are protesting government plans to permit the establishment of non-state universities. 

The first reactions to the planned opening of higher education are as expected. 

College sit-ins and the hurling of petrol bombs confirm that the government is attempting to break a taboo of the era following the restoration of democracy, which by now is only being defended by a rearguard minority. 

Only 16.2% of second and third-year senior high school students support sit-in demonstrations as a means of expressing disagreement with school management, according to a survey on youth and democracy conducted by the National Center for Social Research (EKKE) for the Education Ministry's General Secretariat for Vocational Education, Training, Lifelong Learning and Youth.

They will sit in court on October 4

Students at a vocational training school in Thessaloniki, northern Greece, were staging a sit-in on Tuesday to protest the possibility of criminal charges being brought against a fellow pupil in the wake of the release of a video showing him verbally assaulting a teacher.

Student unions are increasingly expressing opposition to university sit-ins and the disruption such occupations cause, while independent groups often gain more support at student union meetings than those aligned with the major political parties, Kathimerini understands.

As a wave of sit-ins against Greece's name deal with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) sweeps across the country exposing social divisions and evolving into a focal point of opposition between political parties, about 1,200 high school pupils Thursday marched through the northern port city of Thessaloniki.

A new panel set up in the wake of a spate of lawlessness at Greek universities, chiefly to curb the widespread use of drugs on campuses, convened on Tuesday, with members proposing the use of volunteers and instructive seminars.

Deputy Education Minister Dimitris Baxevanakis told Parliament Friday that the "small minority of students" conducting sit-ins at schools across the country must no longer be tolerated and no longer be "told what they want to hear."