The impact of the debt crisis on the salaries of Teaching and Research Staff in national higher education institutions in Greece: a case series study and literature review

Abstract

AbstractThe Teaching and Research Staff (TRS) of Greek universities consists of lecturers, assistant professors, associate professors and full professors (or simply professors). In addition to their special role as public officials, they constitute a group of employees with specific intellectual qualifications, special skills and a scientific background. Therefore, they are not part of the national single salary and ranking system for public servants; instead, they are paid through a specific and specialized salary table.In recent years, due to the financial crisis, their salaries were reduced, while at the same time, there was an increase in taxes and contributions. These changes had a serious negative impact on their salaries. That situation led to the following questions: Which fiscal policies were employed by public management during crisis? What were the measures of the government policy aimed at ameliorating the consequences of the financial crisis? And how much was the reduction in the salaries of the TRS of Greek universities?We conducted a comprehensive search of both the literature and primary sources to answer these questions by presenting a thorough analysis of the current payroll status and changes over the years for the TRS at the University of Western Macedonia during the economic crisis.

Keywords

• Economic crisis
• memorandum
• austerity
• Teaching and Research Staff
• University of Western Macedonia
• Technological Educational Institution