Students at Thessaloniki’s Aristotle University barricaded Medical School professors in a meeting room for 2 ½ hours in a protest against plans to add extra classes and make exams more difficult.

Student takeovers at Greek high schools and universities is common, including locking in – or out – teachers and professors with no action taken against perpetrators, especially under the ruling Radical Left SYRIZA which condones student rebellions.

The university students in Greece’s second-largest city were unhappy they’d have to work harder and face more rigorous exams, said Kathimerini. After first trying to keep the professors out of a meeting room they then locked them in, the report said.

The students were believed affiliated with Leftist groups who don’t want high standards in universities and want to keep the right to stay in school for life without graduating or having to attend classes or take exams.

The head of the school’s academics’ union, Ioannis Nimatoudis, told the paper that the changes are aimed at upgrading the curriculum, which has not been changed since the 1970s, and have been under review for the last five years.

A former SYRIZA Education Minister said that “excellence in education is not a virtue” and the party wants to essentially abolish entrance exams for universities and make tests easier and to give students more power over running schools.