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Greek-French Master Programs
In the framework of the bilateral co-operation between France and Greece, Greek
and French Universities took the initiative for the creation of Joint
Post-Graduate Programs in different domains a few years ago. Seven joint Masters
are running this year (academic year 2009-2010) with the following
characteristics: there are no fees, limited number of students (Greek, French,
and from other countries as well), the teaching language is mainly in French,
mobility of students and academic staff.
Their implementation was made possible thanks to the support by the Greek
Minister of Education and Religious Affairs and the French Ministers of
Education and Foreign Affairs. Their creation confirms the will of Greek
universities to cooperate with the European ones.
The institutional framework which permitted Greece to run post-graduate courses
in cooperation with foreign universities (under which the present joint
Greek-French programs run), Law 3404/2005, mentions that ''The Greek
universities can cooperate with foreign established Institutions of the same
status for the organization and operation of joint Master and Ph.D. programs.
These joint post-graduate programs run under a Special Cooperation Protocol
which determines the objective of the program, the individual scientific domains
of the Ph.D. degree, the finance sources, the participants' rights and
obligations, the academic staff's/students' mobility, the award of one joint
degree or of two separate ones - one from each institution - , the form of the
degree, the language of the dissertation or thesis (...) and any other issue
necessary according to the juridical framework under which post-graduate studies
run in the cooperating countries''.
The above mentioned cooperation protocol, according to the law, ''is prepared by
the collaborating institutions, is approved by their qualified for this bodies
and is submitted, for the Greek part, to the Ministry of Education and Religious
Affairs for the issue of the ministerial decision with which the final
approbation of the Program is made according to article 11 of Law 2083/1992''.
Evidently, on the basis of the same law, ''Post-graduate Specialization Degrees
and Ph.D. Degrees provided (...) are by right considered as equivalent to the
ones provided by the cooperating Institutions in which those joint post-graduate
programs run''.
The same law is also innovative for one more reason, i.e. it permits the
cooperation between Greek and foreign Higher Education Institutions for the
elaboration of Ph.D. theses, by regulating the procedures (assignment of
supervisors from each Institution, assignment of a three-member committee of
co-supervisors and a seven-member committee of examiners, prerequisites for the
undertaking of a Ph.D. dissertation, etc.). Most of the existing joint
Greek-French post-graduate programs have exploited this potentiality (or are in
the preparation phase of a special cooperation protocol for the elaboration of
joint Ph.D. theses).
The joint Greek-French Master Programs, despite their particularities (more or
less innovative, some addressing Greek graduates more and some not, the
exclusive use of the French language or of the French together with the English
and/or the Greek language, obligatory or optional student mobility, some
oriented towards research more and some towards professionalism), have a lot of
common characteristics: high level, award of joint degrees, necessity of
academic staff and/or student mobility. Being generally the outcome of a
previous long cooperation between the Greek and French academic staff they aim
at opening new perspectives for cooperation like joint research and Ph.D.
programs. Based on already existing broader cooperation networks, they permit
scale economies and synergies by enabling the students who attend them to
benefit from the experience of the cooperating academic teams. Thus, they
constitute the first tangible example of the international orientation of Greek
Higher Education Institutions.
Prof. Byron Kotzamanis
Coordinator of the Joint Greek-French Master Programs Network |
