One of the headline institutions expected to spearhead Greece’s higher education ‘reform’—the French university Sorbonne Paris Nord—has been excluded from the list of foreign universities approved to establish private branches in the country. Despite government fanfare, the university did not meet the evaluation criteria set by the Hellenic Authority for Higher Education (HAHE).
Sorbonne Paris Nord, a public French university based in Paris and formerly known as Université Paris XIII, had been presented by the Greek government as a prestigious representative of the wider Sorbonne academic legacy. This portrayal sparked political controversy, with critics questioning whether the university truly carried the academic weight of the globally renowned “Sorbonne.”
Widely touted as a flagship institution in the government’s drive for educational reform, Sorbonne Paris Nord failed to pass the HAHE quality assessment. Although it is a sizable institution in France with approximately 24,000 students, it was ultimately deemed not to meet the necessary academic standards for establishing a branch in Greece.
Just a few months ago, the university was celebrated as a strategic investment in knowledge. On February 17, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met with a delegation from Sorbonne Paris Nord, aiming to underscore the high caliber of private university branches expected under the new legislation.
The rejection, however, has ignited criticism from the opposition. Stefanos Parastatidis, MP for Kilkis and the PASOK–Movement for Change’s education policy lead, offered a pointed response.
“And just like that, the much-hyped ‘Sorbónne’, which was never truly the university of international distinction, has not been granted a license to operate for the 2025–2026 academic year,” he remarked.
Parastatidis also noted that the university, which had proposed a collaboration with the Institution d’Études Francophones, was now off the table—dismantling what he described as the core argument of former Education Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis.
According to Pierrakakis, the law would enable the establishment of internationally acclaimed, non-profit universities in Greece—an assertion that now faces serious scrutiny.
