What the Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy tells protothema.gr – “They are students who transferred; one transferred to the University of Athens in 2022 while already in his 13th semester and is now in his 19th. If mistakes were made, they will be corrected.”

Reactions have been sparked by complaints about the initiation of expulsions of fourth-year students from the Department of History and Archaeology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), as well as by a protest announced by the Student Union at the NKUA Rectorate on Friday, January 23, at 10:00. In this context, the Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy, Professor Dimitris Drosos, explains to protothema.gr what exactly is happening.

“These are students who transferred from other universities to the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. According to the applicable rules, transfers take place into the semester of studies the student was already attending at the university of origin.

That is, when you transfer from one department to another, you continue your studies from the point you left off at the previous university. Therefore, in our case, a student transferred and enrolled in 2022.

He was already in the 13th semester at his university of origin. At present, he is in the 19th semester. In total, there are about 5–6 students who fall into this category,” the Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy clarifies.

At the same time, he emphasizes that if an error has occurred, there is room for correction. As he notes: “These lists of students facing expulsion are not final. They are subject to remedial applications. From our side, a second review will also take place.

These specific lists were generated directly from the computerized system, based on the conditions that had been entered. The process is automatic. If it is established that a mistake has been made, it will obviously be corrected—either through the second review that will be carried out by our administrative offices, or through objections submitted by the students.

It is worth stressing that each case is a separate one. Transfer cases fall exactly into this category—it has nothing to do with the Ministry of Education…

What applies is exactly what has applied since the first day transfers were introduced at universities—when you transfer, you are placed in the semester you were attending at the university you came from.”

Mass expulsions from the Faculty of Philosophy

Regarding the total number of students who were expelled from the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Athens, the Dean states:

“Approximately 18,000 individuals were expelled on December 31 from the 13 departments of the Faculty of Philosophy, of whom more than 10,000 were enrolled before 2000 and more than 14,000 were enrolled before 2010.

We estimate that between 2010 and 2017, each department has around 350 to 400 students who have been expelled. Of course, the number is not the same across all departments: in smaller departments, it is around 250 students enrolled after 2010 who are expelled, while in the larger departments—Philology and History–Archaeology—the number is around 350.”

Students enrolled in the newer departments of the Faculty of Philosophy face a smaller “risk” of expulsion.

“The two newest departments originated from the division of the former Department of Philosophy, Pedagogy, and Psychology (PPP).

When it was split, two new departments were created in 2019: the Department of Philosophy and the Department of Secondary Education Pedagogy. Earlier, in 2010, the Department of Psychology had been created.”

Student Union reactions to the expulsions

In its statement, the Student Union claims that the lists of students facing expulsion at the Department of History and Archaeology of NKUA include fourth-year students who transferred and who enrolled in 2022.

The Union is calling for careful examination of the cases and has announced a protest next Friday, January 23, 2026, should these expulsions go ahead.

Full statement:

“In the ‘final lists’ of students to be expelled from the Department of History and Archaeology are included students in their 4th year whose year of entry to the university was 2022!

In fact, as we were informed during the protest organized by our Student Union on Friday, January 16, the expulsion of these fellow students is ‘strictly provided for’ based on the Ministry of Education’s instructions for the implementation of the law. This is because they are students who entered the department through transfer and ‘cumulatively their years of study exceed the maximum allowable duration of studies’!

This outrageous development once again exposes the crude lies of the government and the Ministry of Education that, with this unacceptable and deeply class-based law on expulsions, they are supposedly attempting to ‘clean up’ university lists of students who enrolled in previous decades.

This unacceptable action confirms the real objective of the law on student expulsions! As the Ministry of Education admitted in a statement, enrollment in a private university is fully permitted after expulsion from a public one, with the issuance of a document certifying the credits the student managed to accumulate. Once again, it is revealed that expulsions concern active students who, in their effort to complete their studies, encountered obstacles due to the anti-education policies of the EU implemented by the ND government and previous ones!

We demand that our fellow students’ appeals be accepted and that their expulsions not be implemented.

We continue the struggle for the abolition of the unacceptable law on expulsions!

We are organizing a protest by our Student Union at the NKUA Rectorate on Friday, January 23, at 10:00.

We call on all Student Unions of NKUA to support our Union’s mobilization.”