The relevant education and religious affairs ministry on Thursday announced the immediate suspension of 37 new higher education schools, one of the last controversial measures passed by the previous leftist SYRIZA government before it lost a general election in July. Without the decisions, the new schools would have commenced operation in Greece's already cavernous and scattered around the country's tertiary system.
The ministry, in an unexpected announcement, charged that the new schools and faculties were created for petty partisan reasons shortly before the election, "without previous planning and sufficient justification."
The government added that a new independent authority will decide on new tertiary schools, faculties and departments based on academic criteria and studies dealing with feasibility and necessity.
