University of Macedonia

A team of 16-year-old students from the Experimental Senior High School of the University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki has won the 2024 De La Vega Global Entrepreneurship Award for the game Wizzle, which is based on symmetries and artistic motifs found in all cultures, cultivates the imagination and combats stress.

For every 100 students enrolled at Greek universities each year, just 52 graduate, according to the latest report by the Hellenic Authority for Higher Education (HAHE) for 2022, which also saw graduation rates dropping steadily through the economic crisis, from 10% in 2013 to 8.6% in 2020, against a European Union average of 23.2%.

The Education Ministry on Tuesday responded to concerns from university authorities regarding dozens of Greek students in the Erasmus exchange program who are trapped in Spain and Italy, the two European countries worst hit by the coronavirus epidemic.

The rector of the University of Macedonia, Achilleas Zapranis, appeared determined on Thursday to hit back after vandals ransacked part of the campus the previous night in the second such attack in a week.

A sharp spike in incidents of violence, and criminal activities, on the grounds of universities across the country has fueled concern among academics who say they are powerless to intervene.

Concerns about incidents of violence at university faculties peaked on Saturday after assailants wielding wooden sticks attacked students at an Athens University campus on Academias Street in central Athens, sending four of them to the hospital. 

There were around 15 assailants, according to witnesses who said they were all wearing crash helmets and holding wooden sticks.