Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met this morning at Maximos Mansion with the President of Yale University Maurie McInnis and the Rector of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Gerasimos Siasos, to discuss the joint postgraduate program that the two institutions will offer, entitled “Global Environmental Sciences and Public Health,” which will be funded by the Recovery and Resilience Fund.
During the meeting, the excellent cooperation that has developed between the two universities was highlighted and the possibility of deepening it was discussed.
The Prime Minister emphasized the importance the government attaches to promoting the extroversion of public universities and fostering cooperation with leading institutions abroad.
The joint postgraduate program is part of the memorandum of cooperation between the University of Athens and Yale, signed in 2021, and in this context, views were exchanged on the prospect of establishing a research center of excellence in Attica to host broader academic cooperation between the two institutions.
At the beginning of the meeting, the Prime Minister stated: “Welcome, it’s a real pleasure to be able to welcome you to Athens, President. And also, officially, congratulations on your role, and on a very impressive commencement speech, which I had an opportunity to listen to at a ceremony that was truly very moving and very grandiose, also very traditional.
I’m very happy that you’re here. I’m particularly happy about the fact that this partnership between Yale and the University of Athens is really flourishing, with the first postgraduate degree being ready, but with other very interesting projects in the pipeline. For us, it’s particularly important to foster such partnerships between our public universities and leading international academic institutions.
We’re also in the process of establishing non-profit private universities in Greece. Just recently, a few days ago, the legislation that we passed was upheld by our Council of State. But for me the priority was always to make sure that our public universities where, at the end of the day, almost all Greek students will study, are open and foster these kinds of collaborations.
So, I’m very happy about the fact that this programme is taking off. I am very eager to also hear your ideas about how we can further strengthen this partnership”.
The President of Yale Maurie McInnis noted: “Well, thank you so much, Prime Minister. I could not be more honoured to be here. Yale University is so long committed to Hellenic studies, classical studies, and now this opportunity to develop a programme with the University of Athens, deepening partnerships, particularly here around public health and environmental studies, is such a great opportunity for our university to deepen our commitment to Greece, and we are very excited for this partnership.
And so appreciative of the support from your government and from the University of Athens for a partnership that we know will grow over the years. So thank you so much”.
The Rector of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Gerasimos Siasos said: “It’s a great honour for us to welcome you, to have this collaboration with the leading institution, the Yale University. It’s a great honour to have the new President here and the former President in our University. We had a fruitful discussion for over five or six hours yesterday in our University. I would like also to thank the Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, for the enormous support of this programme”.
The meeting was attended, on behalf of the Greek government, by the Minister of Education, Religious Affairs and Sports, Sofia Zacharaki, the Minister of State, Akis Skertsos, and the Deputy Minister of Education, Religion Affairs and Sports, responsible for higher education, Nikos Papaioannou. Also participating were Professor Vasilis Vasiliou of the Yale School of Public Health, Professor and Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Nikolaos Thomidis, and the President of the Yale Club of Greece, Kyriacos Sabatakakis.
