Athens University facing bankruptcy in second half 2015
The Athens University is faced with the prospect of bankruptcy and may be unable to operate in the second half of 2015 unless its budget is significantly boosted and there is support from the state, the university's rector Thodoros Fortsakis warned on Monday.
Fortsakis, the university's deputy rectors, faculty members, administrative staff and students on Monday formed a human chain around the main building in central Athens, in a symbolic gesture to show that the university was in danger and needed state support.
The rector said the university might find itself unable to pay basic electricity and heating bills unless something is done. He asked for the return of administrative staff placed in an "availability scheme" in the summer and asked that the fired finance ministry cleaners be transferred to the university instead, as well as calling for laws that will allow the university to hire its own security guards and cleaners.
University academics, meanwhile, stressed that "no serious study" to date had shown that the administrative staff fired in the summer had been in any way surplus.
"Instead, they showed that the Foundation was operating with fewer staff than those it really needed," they said, while also highlighting the problems caused by the transfer of an additional 1700 students for the underfunded university.
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