Foreign candidates

Introduction

According to the Ministerial Decision F.151/20049/Β6/20.02.2007 (FEK 272B/01- 03-07) concerning students admission to Higher Education, it is provided that under special provisions various categories of candidates can be admitted to Higher Education in Greece. E.U. students and non-E.U. students can fall into these categories on condition that neither the candidates themselves nor their parents are of Greek nationality or citizenship.

Those candidates who fulfil the above-mentioned requirements must submit their documents to the Ministry of National Education and Religious Affairs, Directorate of Organizing and Conducting Examinations, from 20th to 30th July 2009. They should also fill in the Candidate's Application Entry Form, which is provided to the candidates on the day they submit their documents, stating the Faculties and the Departments they prefer.

The documents are submitted either by the candidates themselves or by an authorized person. The candidates who submit their documents must be holding their passports (VISA) or the documents of their legal stay-permit in Greece, plus a photocopy thereof. If the candidates are still abroad and cannot submit their documents themselves, the person they have authorized must submit a declaration stating that they are abroad. However, if the candidates are in Greece and their documents are submitted by an authorized person, they should submit a ratified copy of the candidates- passport (VISA) or their stay-permit, certifying their legal presence in Greece.

The essential documents for the application and useful information concerning the selected candidates are listed below. For an updated version of this information and model forms of the essential documents, the candidates are advised to refer to the relative web page of the Greek Ministry of Education, in the link Foreign Students Admission to Higher Education in Greece.

Essential Documents

1. The candidate's application entry form (with a small-size passport photograph of his/hers attached to it).
2. The original graduation certificate, ratified by the competent educational authority of the candidate's country.
3. A certificate of his/her general average marks issued either by the Ministry of Education or by the competent educational authorities of the candidate's country or by the Embassy of his/her country in Greece. The average of the general marks should be based on a point scale of 0-20.
4. An access certificate with the overall examination mark for the candidates who have graduated from a Lyceum of Greece or the Republic of Cyprus.
5. A certificate showing not only the candidate's citizenship and nationality, but also his/her parents' citizenship and nationality (confirming that none of them are of Greek descent).
6. • A certificate issued by the competent educational or diplomatic authority of the candidate's country, confirming that his/her graduation certificate entitles him/her to attend a Higher Education Institution in his/her own country. (This certificate is not necessary for the candidates who have graduated from a Lyceum of Greece or the Republic of Cyprus and hold an access certificate with their overall examination marks.)
   • A certificate issued by the competent educational or diplomatic authority of the candidate's country, confirming the country and the curriculum of the candidate's graduation school.
7. A certificate issued by the competent educational or diplomatic authority of the candidate's country, confirming that he/she has fully attended the last year of a Lyceum or an equivalent school in the country of his/her graduation.
8. A declaration that the foreign (non-E.U.) candidate a) does not hold any degree issued by a Greek Higher Education Institution, and b) has not been admitted to any faculty or department of Higher Education in Greece in the year 2005 or earlier.

All the documents issued by a foreign authority must be a) ratified for the authenticity of the signature of the undersigned person either by a Greek diplomatic authority abroad or by the diplomatic authority of the foreign country in Greece (in the second case, these documents must be ratified by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Greece), and b) translated into Greek either by a Greek diplomatic authority abroad or by the Translation Service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Greece.

Attention should be paid to the documents which have been issued by foreign schools in Greece. The Greek Educational Authorities that are responsible for the specific school (Directorate of Secondary Education that the school belongs to) should ratify the authenticity of the documents issued by the school, as well as state the legal status of the school.

Documents which have been issued by the following countries: Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bulgaria, Barbados, Bahamas, Belarus, Belize, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brunei-Darussalam, Colombia, Cook Islands, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Ecuador, Estonia, France, Finland, Fiji, FYROM, Germany, Grenada, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Lesotho, Latvia, Liberia, Lithuania, Liechtenstein Luxembourg, Macao, Malawi, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Moldavia, Namibia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Niue, Norway, Panama, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, South Africa, St. Lucia, San Marino, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Serbia-Montenegro, Samoa, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Seychelles, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Surinam, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States of America, Venezuela, do not need any ratification by a Greek diplomatic authority abroad, provided that they bear the APOSTILLE seal mentioned in the articles 3 and 4 of the Hague Convention (5th October 1961). The local competent authorities are assigned for this purpose by every contracting country according to article 6 of the Hague Convention. That is why the candidates who obtain their documents from the above mentioned countries should apply to the competent authority (Ministry of Education) of their own country and make sure they have the requested seal stamp on their documents.

ATTENTION: It should be noted that documents not ratified for their authenticity by a foreign authority, as mentioned above, will not be accepted by the Committee in charge of collecting the documents, and the application entry forms will therefore be rejected.

NOTE 1: The particular category of Graduates of Lyceums or equivalent schools of Member States of the E.U. of non-Greek Origin includes the Cypriot citizens who are candidates for the Higher Education of Greece. These candidates submit their documents in Cyprus from 1st to 10th July. (For further information, please contact: ATHENS: Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs, 210-3442102 and 210-3442100; NICOSIA: Ministry of Education and Culture, 22800626 and 22800763)

NOTE 2: The candidates who wish to be considered for the study programmes of the Higher Ecclesiastical Academies, must be successful in the preliminary examination of the competent committee, which will have been established thereof at the Ministry of Education by July 2007. More specifically, the candidates who wish to be considered for the programmes of the aforementioned Ecclesiastical Academies must provide a recommendation letter from the bishop of their district of residence. Moreover, the candidates must be judged in the preliminary examination as eligible for these schools, before the expiry date of the document submission deadline. It should also be noted that ONLY Christian Orthodox candidates are eligible for the Higher Ecclesiastical Academies, while candidates for the clerical studies programme can ONLY be male.

Useful information concerning the selected candidates

1. The selection of the candidates, who enter a Faculty or a Department of Higher Education, is carried out by decision of the Minister of Education. Both the Faculties and the Departments, in which the candidates can be admitted, are written on the candidates' application entry forms.
2. A candidate can enroll only at the Faculty or the Department he/she has been selected for.
3. With regard to his/her registration, the candidate who is admitted either into a Faculty or a Department must also hold a certificate denoting his/her command of the Greek language (such a certificate is issued after relevant examinations either by the University of Athens or by the University of Thessaloniki; alternatively, the candidate should hold a 3rd level or higher certificate issued by the Greek Language Centre of Thessaloniki. If the candidate does not hold any of those language certificates, he/she can only enroll in the next academic year of his/her admission to a Greek University, on condition that he/she will by then have obtained the prerequisite language certificate. Otherwise, the candidate no longer has the right to enroll.
   The examinations for the Greek language certificate are held twice a year:
   • around June and September in ATHENS, at the Modern Greek Language Centre of the University Campus in Zografou; also,
   • in June and October in THESSALONIKI, at the Modern Greek Language Centre of the University of Thessaloniki.
   For further information, concerning the language test and the examinations date, the candidates need to apply to either the University of Athens or the University of Thessaloniki a month before the fixed exam date, to make sure that they will not miss the deadline of the language test.
   If a candidate holds a graduation certificate from a Greek or Cypriot Lyceum, no language certificate is required.
4. According to each Faculty or Department's regulations, candidates should undergo a medical examination before enrolling.
5. Foreign students who come from countries which are not members of the European Union pay fees so as to cover a small percentage of both the expenses of their studies and the books they are granted.
6. The documents submitted by candidates who have not been selected in any School of Higher Education will be returned to the candidate or to an authorized person if so requested. In case the candidate does not request for his/her documents to be returned, the latter will be destroyed in August of the following year.
7. Foreign (non-European Union) students must bear in mind that the Ministry of Education has no authority to grant a visa or a stay-permit. The stay-permit is issued by the Aliens and Immigration Department only to those candidates who are admitted to the Higher Education of Greece, provided that there are no reasons excluding the granting of this stay-permit.
   It is also noted that according to the Greek legislation, a stay-permit is not granted if a student changes Faculty or Department twice.
   Students can change Faculty or Department only once: by submitting a new application entry form within the year following their first admission in a Faculty or Department.