University administrations are completing the deletions today and forwarding to the Directorate of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education the lists with the names of those removed from the student registries of four-year degree programs. It is noted that out of a total of 423 university departments, 291 offer four-year programs.

So far, the number of deletions has reached 228,000. Deputy Minister of Education Nikos Papaiōannou has clarified that those subject to deletion are students who did not benefit from the favorable provision requiring completion of 70% of total coursework and two successful participations in recent examination periods.

Next year, 2026, inactive students in five-year programs will be deleted, and the year after that, those in six-year programs—namely, students who were admitted in 2015 and 2016 respectively.

It is recalled that an additional extension of studies has been granted to approximately 35,000 students who have shown tangible interest in completing their studies.

Regarding the deletions being implemented, the following apply:

At the country’s oldest institution, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, the total number reaches 86,000. “We have students being deleted who date back to the 1930s. The oldest law student enrolled in 1934. From the Law School alone, 27,000 students are being deleted. What is striking is that more than 24,000 are from before 1982. It should be noted that in the 1940s, when admission to university via examinations had been abolished, students enrolled by the hundreds because meals were provided. Being a student was a means of survival,” said the Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs, Professor Sofia Papaiōannou, speaking to protothema.gr.

About 30,000 students are being deleted from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, another historic institution, while 11,345 students are being deleted from Democritus University of Thrace. Approximately 9,700 individuals are being deleted from the University of Ioannina.

From the University of Crete, a total of 6,429 students are being deleted. “More specifically, from the School of Natural Sciences in Heraklion—essentially one school located there—2,157 students are being deleted, and from the five schools in Rethymno, 4,272 are being deleted,” the university’s Rector, Professor Giorgos Kontakis, told protothema.gr.

Similar levels of deletions are seen at the University of Western Macedonia with around 17,000 deletions—most of which come from former Technological Educational Institutes (TEIs)—and at the University of Patras with approximately 18,000 deletions. Slightly more, around 22,000, are expected from the University of West Attica.

Well below 10,000 are the deletions at the University of the Aegean, which total 5,271, and at the Ionian University, with more than 4,000. At the University of Piraeus, although the exact number has not yet been announced, administrative sources state that “most deletions are expected to come from the Higher Industrial School, that is, today’s Department of Business Administration and Management, as it was founded in the early 1960s and therefore includes the oldest students at the university.