The relationship between Higher Education and labour market in Greece : the weakest link?

The high level of graduate unemployment, even though it is acknowledged as one of the most distinctive characteristics of the Greek labour market, it has not attracted enough attention in the academic literature. This paper utilizes micro-data from the Labour Force Survey in order to investigate how the employment situation of young (aged 35 and below) graduates varies across fields of study. The findings suggest that graduates of disciplines that have high levels of private sector employment, such as Polytechnics and Computer Science, are in general better off in the Greek labour market. On the other hand, graduates of disciplines that are traditionally related to the needs of the public sector, such as Sociology and Humanities, face poor employment prospects. The findings of this study highlight the need for drastic reforms of the Higher Education system

Studying, designing and 3d-printing an operational model of the Antikythera Mechanism

3D printing technology is an established industrial practice for rapid prototyping and manufacturing across a range of products, components and commercial sectors and at the same time possesses great potential for every-day life applications to be invented, explored and developed by the coming generations of scientists and engineers. A 3D printer installed in a school setting and complemented by well-designed educational activities can: stimulate the interest and curiosity of students; engage and motivate them into studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects, that they may choose or consider as career options; give the opportunity to teachers to achieve content and concept learning in an innovative way. In this paper we present an interdisciplinary science course that was developed for high school students and was implemented in an actual science classroom. The objectives of the course were both to spark the interest and creativity of students and teach them certain curriculum units the content knowledge of which is reached or utilized in an unconventional way. Students are gradually introduced into the 3D printing technology, its application and potential and are assigned a challenging collaborative project in which they have to study, analyse, design and build, using the 3D printer of their school, an operational model of a renown ancient artefact, the so-called Antikythera Mechanism. The mechanism is a 2100-year-old computer and is internationally known as an artefact of unprecedented human ingenuity and scientific, historic and symbolic value. The course involves the teaching of STEM curriculum domains of physics, astronomy, mathematics/geometry, informatics and technology related content and also non-STEM subjects like history and Greek language, both ancient and modern. We give an overview of the course, discuss its various phases and highlight its outcomes

Η Οριακή Κατάσταση Λειτουργικότητας σε Βιομηχανικά Κτίρια

338 σ.Σκοπός της διπλωματικής εργασίας είναι η διερεύνηση των κριτιρίων διαστασιολόγησης μεταλλικών κτιρίων με γερανογέφυρα που έχουν ως κύριους φορείς ολόσωμα πλαίσια, δεδομένων των ειδικών λειτουργικών απαιτήσεων που επιβάλλονται λόγω της παρουσίας της.Θεόδωρος Γ. Κανελλόπουλο

Wage returns to university disciplines in Greece: are Greek Higher Education degrees Trojan Horses?

This paper examines the wage returns to qualifications and academic disciplines in the Greek labour market. Exploring wage responsiveness across various degree subjects in Greece is interesting, as it is characterised by high levels of graduate unemployment, which vary considerably by field of study, and relatively low levels of wage flexibility. Using micro-data from recently available waves (2002-2003) of the Greek Labour Force Survey (LFS), the returns to academic disciplines are estimated by gender and public/private sector. Quantile regressions and cohort interactions are also used to capture the heterogeneity in wage returns across the various disciplines. The results show considerable variation in wage premiums across the fields of study, with lower returns for those that have a marginal role to play in an economy with a rising services/shrinking public sector. Educational reforms that pay closer attention to the future prospects of university disciplines are advocated