2024-03-02 08:00:14
Interesting observations and positions were expressed at the event, organized by the Association of Faculty Members of the University of Ioannina, in collaboration with the associations of ETEP, EDIP, EEP, administrative officers and employees on the theme “60 years University of Ioannina: reflections and concerns for its future”.
Faculty members expressed their disagreement on the principle with the establishment of private universities, while those academics who are not a priori opposed, recognize that the bill of the Ministry of Education has many loopholes.
At a pivotal juncture for the future of public universities, all opinions were heard in the debate, with the common denominator being the identified problems of underfunding, understaffing and bureaucratic constraints in the operation of universities, but also the fact that public universities have nothing to “fear” from private, to study level and much more research.
The president of the Association of Faculty Members, Alexandros Tzallas, referred to the effects of the establishment of private universities on regional institutions, as expressed by the Senate of the local Foundation, at the start of the discussion.
“As a public university, we have nothing to fear”, said the vice-chancellor Xenophontas Bitsikas, noting that what is critical, however, is that there will be student losses due to the cost of living in the region, given that the largest percentage of students at the University of Ioannina come from from Athens and Thessaloniki. At the same time, he expressed his concerns about the different treatment of public and private universities in terms of the selection of teaching professors and admitted students.
Although he stated that he was not opposed to the establishment of private universities in the country, Professor Spyros Konitsiotis noted that his final position, after the publication of the bill, is that he does not agree with it and that the time is not suitable for such a thing. “Many attempts at reforms have been made in the past. There are my colleagues who by definition say no to everything. I don’t”, he characteristically noted and then reasonably wondered about the fact that a clear answer has not been given by constitutional experts on the constitutionality or otherwise of the bill.
He added that since colleges are already operating, whose degrees are recognized, what the new bill will bring is the possibility of using the “university label”. He emphasized, however, that this should be considered based on academic needs. “We produce far more graduates than we need. Why should we want others?”, he asked himself and, focusing on his own field, Medicine, he referred to the “leaks” that want a business group, which even owns hospitals, to seek the establishment of a Medical School. “This immediately clears up the problem for regional universities. We here have a problem attracting high-level clinicians with surgical specialties, etc., because they cannot practice private work in large hospitals in the countryside, so they prefer to stay in Athens. So imagine a private university in Athens, which will give the title of professor to the doctors who already work in the private hospitals that will form the University Hospital of this School of Medicine. They will immediately receive the title of professor, with procedures that are not specified, as long as 80% have a doctorate and 20% do not, without the procedure that applies to all of us,” he said.
The chairman of the Department of Agriculture, professor Anastasios Tsinas, went one step further. He emphasized that, since the same rules apply to everyone, “let the best win”, stressing that the hordes of scientists who graduated from public universities during the crisis and went abroad, are rapturous.
“Within this environment they succeeded and rose to the occasion. There is no better proof of the quality of studies”, he emphasized and wondered if the rules will really be the same for everyone. “What is happening today is that we are all under the same roof. What is true for one university is true for the other. But what will happen tomorrow? The legislator becomes my “principal” at the same time, so, just as the private principal will make the decision in two days and put it into practice, I demand the same. Don’t put security and transparency barriers for me, which are good to have, but let’s not go to the other end and make a competition for computers and have it be completed 2.5 years later, when what I asked for will be obsolete”, he emphasized. expressed the belief that academics, despite the black spots, will remain “faithful” to the public Universities.
One of the most intelligent positions was that of the dean of the School of Informatics and Telecommunications Evripides Glava, who “resorted” to the help of artificial intelligence to find arguments in favor of private and public universities. “Private universities are businesses with the goal of profit. Their main priority is financial performance, not educational excellence,” was one of the first GPT Chat arguments, with Mr Glava commenting: “We live in a society where profit is good, so it can be good argument. Probably the profit is the right thing, not the quality of education, so our government is just right. I will not take a position”, he noted characteristically and continued with the “reverse deconstruction” of other arguments in favor of Chat GPT’s private universities, such as that “the private university strengthens inequalities” and “poses an additional risk to academic freedom”. “So we want a university where the Rector and the Senate will make a decision like the one they made the day before yesterday and they will go unpunished?”, he pointedly stated.