ATHENS – Greece’s reputation for cronyism and patronage in the public sector is especially prominent at universities, including at the University of Athens Medical School where some 30 percent of the faculty of 550 is reportedly related in some way.

An Education Ministry source not namedalleged that to Kathimerini while adding that, “This does not mean that their appointment was not merited,” but now councils overseeing the election of professors will include independent members not affiliated with the faculty, although it wasn’t said what the procedure for hiring will be.

The new oversight body of councils will be used “as safeguards to protect meritocracy,” Vassilis Digalakis, Chairman of Parliament’s Education Committee and a former deputy minister told the paper.

It’s being set up after complaints about a lack of transparency in how professors were selected including that some were chosen not for merit but because of political connections with no report on how they are vetted, or if they are.

Greek universities don’t rank among the best in the world by a number of sites that use a wide range of criteria to assess schools and regularly see disruption by students but have little competition as the Constitution forbids the civil service from accepting degrees from private or foreign universities of renown.