Greek police and students clash over college reform

ATHENS, June 27 (Reuters) Greek university students hurled rocks and petrol bombs at riot police who responded with teargas today, in the latest protest against education reforms to turn violent.

Universities and technical colleges around the country have been in uproar through protests and sit-ins since the government unveiled reforms a month ago aimed at bringing the educational system into line with EU standards.

Greek television showed masked demonstrators smashing marble paving stones to pelt police with the fragments, and hurling bottles from an upper floor of a university building in the centre of the capital.

''There have been no injuries reported but some detentions have been made,'' a police official told Reuters.

Earlier today, student demonstrators clashed with police at a seaside resort south of Athens where education ministers from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development were meeting.

In attendance was Greek Education Minister Marietta Giannakou, who has said she will make new proposals for discussion in an attempt at conciliation that has done nothing to defuse the unrest.

The proposals made by the centre-right government so far would open the door to private universities, establish a new system for evaluating students and professors, and set a deadline for students to finish their degree.

Greece is the only European Union member which does not recognise private universities.

It is facing a 2010 deadline, when the EU hopes to adopt common standards that will make cooperation between universities easier and establish degree equivalence.

Facing local elections in October, the government has put off a parliamentary vote, fearing student unrest of the kind that sank attempts to reform the youth jobs law in France earlier this year.

An estimated 118,000 students in Greek universities have stayed longer than the standard five years to complete their degrees -- almost half of the total student population.

Greece's spending on education is equivalent to about 3.7 percent of gross domestic product, compared with 5 per cent on average in the rest of the EU.

The constitution limits higher education to public institutions and bars private universities. More than 50,000 university-aged Greeks are studying abroad.

REUTERS HS RS2206