University World News ran an interesting piece the other day.  Apparently, the Greek government, as part of its continuing search for money, has devised a brilliant idea to get funds from the higher ed sector.  It’s going to close four universities, and reduce the size of the incoming class by about 30%.

Well, that’s sure one way to do it.  Apparently, tuition fees weren’t considered – I’m not entirely sure why it wasn’t; it’s not as though they’re verboten in Mediterranean countries.  Spain, Italy, and Portugal all have tuition fees in public education, and the latter two also have substantial private sectors in higher education.

Undoubtedly, a move to impose tuition fees would carry with it some practical problems; students and their families don’t have a lot of spare cash right now, and the government isn’t currently in a position to set up a student loan guarantee system (what bank in their right mind would accept a guarantee from the Greek government?).  And it’s not as though the Greek people haven’t been hit with any number of recent tax increases and service cuts.  Given this, one can easily see why a government which has some pretty big political fish to fry – like saving the country from bankruptcy – would be gunshy about creating yet another political furore.

There would also be a potential for backlash.  Greece’s “academic amnesty” laws, which date from the ousting of the colonels in the early 1970s, essentially bans police from university grounds.  As you can probably imagine, such laws lower the barriers to violent opposition to pretty much anything – the result of any move to impose tuition fees might well become red-square, squared.

That said, it’s wise not to overplay the comparisons between Greece and, say, Quebec or Nova Scotia.  One is actually bankrupt while the others are simply impecunious.  But there’s no getting around the basic dynamics at work.  Once you rule out increased tuition as a source of income, government cutbacks can only mean one of two things: lower spending per-student, or a restriction of student numbers.  Greece, after several years of trying the former path, has now chosen the latter.

I wonder how student groups will respond to this?  I’m half-willing to bet that some of them will find a way to claim that, because free tuition has been preserved, the actual reduction of spaces doesn’t represent a loss of accessibility.  But that’s sophistry.  A lot fewer students living near one of the universities slated for closure (significantly, none of them are in Athens) will have access to higher education.  That’s a terrible loss, and one that could have been avoided with just a little contribution from students.