Education Minister Andreas Loverdos announced the permanent deletion of about 118,000 “eternal” students from Greek universities on August 31. The issue of the Greek eternal students — those who are enrolled but don’t attend classes or take examinations — was the focus of a meeting on Wednesday between the Education Minister, university deans and college directors. Loverdos announced the permanent deletion of all eternal students but at the same time he talked about certain amendments that will be discussed in Parliament on August 26. The Minister is willing to give a second chance to eternal students. In particular, it was decided to provide two additional examination periods for students who have shown active interest in participating in the exam in the last two academic years, 2012-13 and 2013-14. These students will be eligible to participate in the next two years and complete the exam periods in September and February, while in the same category are those who have successfully completed their exams in courses but have dissertations, thesis or internships pending. It is estimated that this second chance applies to about 30,000 students. According to the Ministry, the total number of eternal students is approximately 120,000 in universities and 50,000 in technical schools (TEI) across the country.