The Education Ministry will strategically and financially support collaborations between Greek public universities and the top 20 international universities, in order to offer joint postgraduate degrees, according to Education Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis.

The studies, he said, will take place in Greece and the degree will carry the title of both universities.

“We will seek partnerships of our public universities with major international institutions of higher education in Europe and the US,” he said in an interview with Kathimerini.

“Our goal is to attract the top-20 international universities. Processes have already started. The intention is to give joint point graduate degrees and degrees through the Greek public university,” he said.

As an example, he noted, one such model would be for the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) to create a joint master’s degree with the Swiss ETH or the British Imperial, “which would take place in our country but grant both master’s degrees.”

On the other hand, at a time when more than 40,000 Greeks study abroad, many of them in Cypriot universities, he said the Eduction Ministry will institutionalize the establishment of non-state universities as branches of foreign universities in Greece, emulating the corresponding model of Cyprus.

Meanwhile, ahead of the new academic year starting on Monday, Pierrakakis assured that the teacher evaluation process will continue but with less of a bureaucratic burden and that all schools will be equipped with a total of 36,264 interactive whiteboards by February 2024.