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The legislation was approved by 159 lawmakers in the 300-seat
parliament.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said it will help reverse an
exodus of tens of thousands of Greek students to universities
abroad, a drag on an economy still recovering from a decade-long
financial crisis.
The bill will also help align Greece with the rest of the
European Union and boost competition in higher education, he
said in a speech to lawmakers.
Students have been protesting peacefully for weeks against the
bill. On Friday afternoon thousands of students rallied outside
parliament holding banners reading "no to private universities".
A group of protesters who peeled off from the main group threw
petrol bombs at police, who responded with teargas.
"We are scared that ... if we do manage to graduate we'll never
be able to get a job anywhere," said Stratos Katselis, 25. "No
young person today can make any kind of plan for the future. All
we see are dead ends."
The university bill is part of a government reform agenda that
also includes a same sex marriage law that was passed last
month.
Greece spends 3%-4% of its annual economic output on education,
below the EU average. Mitsotakis, who won a second term in June
last year, said the bill stipulated increased funding for state
universities.
(Reporting by Lefteris Papadimas, Angeliki Koutantou and Louisa
Gouliamaki; Editing by Frances Kerry)
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