Page 58 - EW-June-2024

International News

Opposition party Syriza further argues that the bill could
create a two-tier system favouring the wealthy, with law-
maker Harris Mamoulakis commenting: “Whoever has
money will study: the power of privilege.” An estimated
18,000 students protested outside parliament against the
bill.
Yet Pierrakakis, who served as minister of digital gover-
nance before taking up his current role last year, says the
new law is “fully commensurate with the Constitution” be-
cause it “does not touch upon the foundation of new entities
but actually allows for the location of chapters of existing
universities within Greece”.
The prohibition of private universities “had a symbolic
nature” in Greece, says Pierrakakis. “I think it’s important
for governments and politicians to show that certain totem-
ic policies which have remained in our country for decades, Chinese graduates: industry-academy mismatch
if they’re considered to be non-productive, we should have
the courage to break them or change them,” he says. mand for graduates has stagnated. Meanwhile, the supply
Greece has a vast academic diaspora, with more than of them is growing. This year, nearly 12 million students are
40,000 students currently enrolled overseas. The new law, expected to graduate from higher-education institutions,
says Pierrakakis, would help to “render the country an edu- an increase of 2 percent compared with last year. Between
cational centre” and “address the number of Greeks who 2000 and 2024, the number of Chinese graduates per year
are leaving the country to study abroad because they can- grew more than tenfold.
not have their educational destinies fulfilled domestically”. This phenomenon can be traced back to Min Tang, a
While the facilitation of private universities has attracted Chinese economist who proposed expanding enrolment in
most headlines, the minister says, “85 percent of the con- higher education as a way of dealing with the Asian finan-
tent of the law touches upon institutional changes in public cial crisis of the late 1990s. Such a policy would postpone
universities”. Alongside “breaking the state monopoly on young people’s entry into the job market and stimulate the
higher education”, he says, the law has two other central economy by way of education spending, he said. The gov-
goals: to allow for the establishment of joint Masters pro- ernment adopted his plan, which coincided with societal
grammes between Greek public universities and “inter- changes that pushed in the same direction. Children born
nationally renowned” overseas universities, and to grant under China’s one-child policy began to come of age in
international students “easier access to the Greek higher 1999. With family size limited, parents had more to invest
education system for brief periods of study”. in each child-and more incentive to encourage their stud-
ies, since these children are expected to provide for their
CHINA parents in old age.
Familiar phenomenon problem if they were learning skills valued by employers.
The rising number of graduates might not be such a
THE UNEMPLOYMENT RATE FOR YOUTH aged But Chinese companies complain that they cannot find
16-24 in cities reached a record high of 21.3 per- qualified candidates for open positions. Part of the prob-
cent last June (2023). That was perhaps too em- lem are low-quality minban daxue (private universities).
barrassing for the government, so it stopped publishing the Yet the skills mismatch extends across higher education.
data series while it rejigged its calculation to exclude young For example, the number of students studying the humani-
people seeking jobs while studying. The new numbers are ties is growing even though demand for such graduates is
lower, but still depressing: in March 15.3 percent of young much lower than that for specialists in other fields.
people in cities were unemployed. That’s nearly three times In his state-of-the-nation speech in March, Li Qiang, the
the overall jobless rate. prime minister, at least paid lip service to the idea of mak-
For young graduates, the situation is probably even more ing sure more graduates learn skills needed in sectors such
dire. China does not release unemployment data for this co- as advanced manufacturing and elderly care. But many will
hort. By our calculations (including students who are seek- continue to find that their degree is not a ticket to a good
ing jobs), the unemployment rate for 16-24-year-olds with job. Told for years that higher education is a ladder to a
university education was 25.2 percent in 2020, the last year better life, their frustrations are growing.
for which census data are available. That was 1.8 times the
unemployment rate of all young people at the time. (Excerpted and adapted from Times Higher Education and
China’s sluggish economy is at least partly to blame. De- The Economist)

58 EDUCATIONWORLD JUNE 2024