24-08-16 Results of new university admissions examinations announced

Announcing the much-awaited results of the annual nationwide university entry exams (Panelladikes), Education Minister Nikos Filis offered an earnest critique of the existing university admissions system and said changes are being planned to overhaul the system and radically restructure high schools, so that they may become places of learning and not test prep centres.

“We are well aware of the fact that the current university admissions system has exhausted any utility. It is unfortunately based on a globally unique model that downgrades schools and bolsters outside, private tutoring, which represents yet another, huge economic burden for families,” Filis said. “We are working, in the framework of the national dialogue, to create a new university admissions system, without haste but also without significant postponement.”

The minister underlined that the crucial factor is fundamental reform of the high school system (especially the second and the third and last year) that would return the responsibility for university admissions preparation to high schools, by upgrading the academic curriculum.

Nikos Filis also underlined the intensive efforts of the ministry to ensure that all primary and secondary schools are fully staffed on the first day of classes – September 12 – and noted that 21,000 substitute teachers are being hired to cover vacancies throughout the year.”Our preparations aim to cover all vacancies by the very first day, and we have the conviction that we will succeed,” he said, calling on opposition parties not turn the issue into a political battleground.

Education Ministry General Secretary Yannis Pantis underscored that a new, totally different, examinations system was applied this year,  and that this renders hazardous  any comparison with the minimum number of points required for admission to various  faculties last year (or in previous years).

 Pantis said that 69 percent of a total of 105,000 applicants - 72,973 candidates - were able to gain admission to one university faculty.

This year, candidates who had graduated from high school in 2015 or earlier were allowed to be examined under the old system, and in this category there was an 82 percent success rate. 

In the category of vocational high school graduates  - who under a quota system are competing for only 21 percent of the seats in tertiary technical schools (TEI) -  only 42 percent gained admission under the new system, and a slightly higher percentage under the old system – 45 percent.

The positive surprise this year, Pantis said, was the large number of candidates for the Firefighting Academy and Police academy, which produced an intense competition and hiked the minimum number of points required for admission.

In addition, there was intense interest in the new Islamic Studies department at the University of Thessaloniki, with 2,800 candidates competing for only 30 available spots in this first year of operation.  “These were not Muslim students,” Pantis noted. “It is well that we see how positive the Education Ministry’s decision was to go ahead and found this department.

Finaslly, the minimum number of points required for medical school admission (13,000 candidates) went up, while for theoretical subjects (law, humanities, etc.) the benchmark went down,