When Dr Elizabeth Kefallinos, former head of Modern Greek Studies at Macquarie University, took her long service leave at the beginning of last year after 23 years of teaching, she returned to find that the Greek program was about to be downgraded from a major to minor. Having served the programme she felt that it had plenty of life in it yet, and advised that the only hope was – ομοψυχία (one soul). It turns out that the gathering of the Greek community to support the programme has paid off, with the Macquarie Greek Studies Foundation announcing this week that modern Greek Studies would continue at the university with Major and Diploma programmes to be offered from 2022.

The Faculty’s recommendation to reinstate Modern Greek as Major and Diploma was supported by the University’s Executive Group. The Faculty of Arts team will now be working on implementing the necessary formalities to activate these offerings for 2022. Thus, from the academic year 2022 Macquarie University students or cross-institutional students will be able to study Modern Greek as a Major, Minor, Diploma, elective or non-award, on-campus in the new language labs or fully online.

This result came about thanks to the Macquarie Greek Studies Foundation collaboration with the Executive Leadership Team of the Faculty of Arts, the MUGA students association, the media, Greek community organisations, individuals, the Consulate General of Greece in Sydney and the Consulate General of Greece’s Education Office in Melbourne, who threw their support behind the programme both morally and financially.

READ MORE: Dr Kefallinos’ disappointment as Greek program is downgraded at Macquarie University

The programme’s number range from 60 to 260, and Dr Kefallinos had told Neos Kosmos that these fluctuations are not unusual. Last year’s decision to downgrade the programme came at the same time as efforts in Melbourne were made to keep alive Greek Studies at La Trobe university. One thing is clear, the programmes need participants to survive and hopefully the Greek community in Australia will indicate the need for Greek language programmes in the best way possible – by enrolling in them.

Enrolments for 2022 are expected to start later this year. For more information, contact Dr Patricia Koromvokis, Head of Modern Greek Studies Macquarie University: patricia.koromvokis@mq.edu.au