Universities around Australia need to adopt a new model in order to survive states a new report by Ernst & Young, and Greek programs are set to suffer.

According to the report, no university will survive on the current model by 2025. Ernst & Young said of the 39 universities in Australia, none of them will be around in ten to 15 years unless they change their current business model.

Justin Bokor the author of the report University of the Future told the ABC that “today’s universities are too inefficient”. “Their teaching is done two semesters a year, 13 weeks, four days a week. That’s about 100 days a year. And it’s used the rest of the year but not that much. So they need to get much leaner to survive the next sort of ten, 15 years and beyond,” he said.

The report proposes a number of solutions, but all of them appear to be a bad omen for Greek programs in Australia. The three models proposed in the report suggest universities have closer links with industry and form larger partnerships. They should adopt more online resources and should become more focused by running three, four or five programs only. Professor Michael Tsianikas of Flinders University told Neos Kosmos that although he agrees with what the report says, universities shouldn’t sit on their laurels and wait for reports – they should be proactive in searching for solutions to these problems that are fast becoming inevitable in tertiary education.

As a program, he says that Greek units are facing the “anxiety of extinction…they face the fear of being shut down due to low enrolments, a low number of academics – many institutions have only one Greek lecturer to do everything”. Students are opting to study other more popular languages like French, Spanish and Asian languages. There is also little to no support from Greece, and with an ageing Greek-born population, interest is dwindling. Now, new migrant communities in Australia are demanding their languages be taught.

Economically, Australia has more to gain by interacting with Asian counties in terms of international students as opposed to commercial exchanges with Greece. However, the professor adds that all is not lost. He agrees with the report and says that the Greek programs should develop online programs as a matter of urgency. He says as a community, we need to discuss and create a plan for Modern Greek to survive in Australia.

“It is very urgent for the Greek communities to understand that university Greek programs are institutionally and symbolically extremely important and impossible to replace when eliminated.” He says the Greek community should embrace the remaining Greek programs as an integral part of their “assets and have to look them and invest in them financially,” Professor Tsianikas adds it’s “strategically and absolutely imperative” to create foundations to ensure the survival of the remaining Greek programs.