ATHENS: Thousands of Greek students demonstrated against proposed education changes that would permit the establishment of private institutions in the nation in Athens and other towns on Thursday, according to Al Jazeera.

This month, a measure allowing private universities to operate in Greece is anticipated to be submitted to parliament by the conservative administration led by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who was elected to a second term last year.

The institutions will function as overseas university branches, according to the administration. Many think that the move will make degrees from Greece’s public universities less valuable and that those who cannot afford the private system will be excluded, Al Jazeera reported.

According to Al Jazeera, a student named Christina Iliopoulou, who participated in the demonstration in Athens, stated that the reform would “tear apart the public university as we knew it.”

“It will completely ruin our everyday lives and make it impossible for us to find employment once we graduate.”

Although most of the protests were nonviolent, there was a brief altercation in Athens between demonstrators and police during which tear gas was used. Greece’s universities are publicly sponsored establishments where admission has long been free.

However, Greece has previously enacted a number of educational changes in face of strong opposition from faculty and staff.

With a parliamentary majority, the government has maintained that the reform will boost the economy by bringing back some of the approximately 40,000 students who are now studying abroad and halting the academic brain drain that was brought on by the debt crisis of 2010-2018, reported Al Jazeera.

The government said last week that the curriculum of private colleges would adhere to extremely strict academic requirements. It also added that the reform would relieve public universities of bureaucracy and improve their self-governance.