Greece Plans €25m University Security Systems After Campus Attack

ATHENS, November 2026 — Greece will launch an international tender for university security systems worth almost €25 million by the end of December, Education Minister Sofia Zacharaki said in a television interview.

The project covers five universities with increased security needs in Athens, Thessaloniki and Patras, Zacharaki told the OPEN channel.

According to the plan, the university security systems will include controlled access, electronic surveillance and extra guarding. Work should finish within 2027.

She outlined the university security systems following a violent attack at the Zografou university campus in Athens.

“I want young people to enjoy student life in safe spaces,” Zacharaki said. “We cannot allow violence to cancel what our universities achieve.”

A wider security plan

The university security systems also form part of a broader plan, she said. Officials at the Education Ministry are drawing it up with the Ministry of Citizen Protection and the Centre for Security Studies, KEMEA.

Alongside the university security systems, updated guidelines are already in place. As a result, all 24 Greek universities must add them to their own security plans.

Those plans cover preventing and handling violence, as well as emergencies and the safe evacuation of campus buildings.

Previously, Greek City Times reported how police broke up a drug gang operating on the Zografou campus in January.

School exams and teacher hiring

In addition, Zacharaki said a public online consultation on the national school diploma would open within days. Students, teachers and parents will take part.

“I care about what children learn and how they learn it,” she said. “How they get into university is the end of the journey.”

In the age of artificial intelligence in particular, schools need to rethink the knowledge and skills they offer pupils, the minister said.

However, the government has made no final decision on the shape of the new system or its timetable, she said. The changes will not affect current senior high school students or those in the last years of junior high.

Greece first opened nationwide talks on the new diploma in February.

On staffing, the third round of substitute teacher hiring will happen by 17 November at the latest, Zacharaki said. Schools have taken on about 40,000 substitutes so far.

Still, shortages remain, since regional education directorates keep updating their needs, she said.

Hiring then gives priority to subjects in the national university entrance exams, primary schools and kindergartens, the minister said. The all-day school program also takes priority.

Source: Ta Nea

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