4,750 students to be removed from university departments in Gümülcine

A total of 4,750 students will be removed from the registers of departments at Democritus University of Thrace (DUTH) in Gümülcine by December 31, under a new legal framework adopted last summer. Among those affected are students who first enrolled as far back as 1974, the year the Komotini Law School was established.

According to the legislation, students who had completed at least 70% of their courses or credits and had participated in exams at least twice during the past two years were given the option—upon application—to complete their studies within two additional semesters. Applications had to be submitted within 30 days of the announcement of results from the September exam period. Students who did not initiate this process will be automatically deregistered at the end of the calendar year.

The measure does not apply to:

Students with a disability rate above 50%

• Students with serious health issues, for whom exceptional extensions may be granted
• Active students or those still within the statutory duration of studies (4+2 or 5+3 years)
• A part-time student status remains available for parents with children up to eight years old, individuals working more than 20 hours per week, and athletes with demanding training schedules.

National Context
According to a report published last June by the National Authority for Higher Education, during the 2023–2024 academic year Greece had 352,099 active university students, while the total number of registered students stood at 703,857. This indicates that 351,758 students nationwide were classified as inactive.

Situation in Gümülcine
The largest number of deregistrations in Komotini will occur at the Law School, the city’s oldest faculty, where 1,756 students will be removed from the rolls. Of these, 17 students originally enrolled in 1974 and had remained registered until today, while approximately 1,500 entered the school before 2010.

Second on the list is the School of Humanities, formed through the merger of three departments. A total of 1,310 students will be deregistered from this school, including:

493 from History–Ethnology
314 from Greek Philology
503 from the Department of Language, Literature and Culture of Black Sea Countries
The Department of Physical Education and Sport Science (TEFAA)—the city’s second-oldest department—will see 660 students removed. Of these, 500 enrolled before 2010, with records showing that eight students who entered in 1984 were still officially registered.

Further deregistrations include:

• 507 students from the Department of Economics
• 311 from Social Policy
• 151 from Political Science
• 55 from Social Work

The deregistration process reflects a broader effort to address long-standing inactive student records within Greece’s higher education system.