RESPONSIBILITIES

National Higher Education Strategy

HAHE, by decision of the Board, proposes to the Minister of Education and Religious affairs: a) the programme of national strategy for higher education, b) the programme agreements of the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs with each University, c) the establishment, merger, division, abolition and University and academic unit renaming, d) proposals for consistent high quality assurance in higher education, and e) proposals and measures for enhancing the internationalisation of Universities.

University funding

HAHE, by decision of the Board, proposes to the Minister of Education and Religious affairs: a) the distribution of the annual total budget to Universities; twenty percent (20%) of which is distributed in terms of quality indicators and achievements of each institution, b) the distribution of staff positions, c) the current criteria and manner of distribution of state subsidies to universities, ensuring criteria and indicator transparency by posting the relevant data on its website.

To put its responsibilities into effect, HAHE: a) collects and analyses the necessary data from each university, b) systematically monitors university graduates' employability to, c) assigns studies and surveys related to HAHE. HAHE can propose to the Minister of Education and Religious Affairs the full or partial suspension of university funding if it does not, by its own fault, provide any required information and/or necessary documentation.

Quality Assurance

Ensuring and improving quality in universities, study programmes and degrees is a fundamental goal of Greek Higher Education, in order to meet societal needs and University expectations. These goals were further strengthened by University, Academic Unit and study programme accreditation.

Promoting Centres of Excellence

To reward and support optimal quality and innovation in Universities, the promotion of Centres of Excellence in higher education is established. Universities, Schools, Departments, and/or interdisciplinary university entities, as well as university partnerships with Greek or foreign research centres are considered as Centres of Excellence by HAHE, following a call for submissions and a subsequent evaluation by special committees comprised of the Evaluation and Accreditation Council (EAC), whose members are appointed (randomly) from the External Experts’ Registry of HAHE. The criteria for the promotion of Centres of Excellence are excellent quality and effectiveness of teaching and research, effective structure and organisation of related curricula, relevance between teaching and research, and high quality of support services. By decision of the Minister of Education and Religious Affairs, issued after a proposal of HAHE board, the evaluation criteria per case are specified, the weighting factors of each indicator are determined, and Centre of Excellence specific selection procedures and details are defined, in addition to any further support and explanation of related issues.