In the last couple of years there has been an increased interest on the issue of fairness in access to higher education. A number of comparative and country-specific studies have focused on the rules, the policies, and the institutions that regulate fairness (Duru-bellat, 2012;Meyer el al, 2013; Mountford-Zimdars & Sabbagh, 2013). This work contributes to above literature by presenting key charateristics of the university entrance examinations in Greece combined with the main social and the educational sources of inequality and marginalisation. Hierarchical analyses of national examination results measure the amount of variance within geographical regions, school catchment areas and individual schools. Qualitative methodologies have focused on the cultural determinants of failure in specific geographic areas.

National examinations in Greece have been studied in the past by only a small number of scholars either from an educational point of view (Kassotakis & Papageli, 1996) or from a sociological perspective (Themelis, 2013; Kontogiannopoulou-Polydorides, 1995; Gouvias, 1998). Other scholars have focused on specific topics that are connected with university entrance examinations, like dropout rates (Kyridis et al, 2011) or the shadow education system of secret private lessons (Kassotakis & Verdis, 2013). A special interest group under the auspices of the Greek General Confederation of Greek Labour also publishes annual indicators on relevant topics. 

Duru-bellat, M. (2012). Access to Higher Education : What counts as fairness in both an individual and systemic perspective ? Methodological Discussion Paper Access to Higher Education : What counts as fairness in. Retrieved from http://www.sciencespo.fr/liepp/sites/sciencespo.fr.liepp/files/MethoDisc-DURU-BELLAT-1.pdf Gouvias, D. (1998). The National Examination’s System of Greece and its function as a mechanism of social selection. European Conference on Educational Research. Ljubljana, Slovenia. Kassotakis, M., & Papageli, D. (1996). Η πρόσβαση στην Ελληνική Τριτοβάθμια Εκπαίδευση [Access to Greek Higher Education]. Athens: Grigoris. Kassotakis, M., & Verdis, A. (2013). Shadow education in Greece: characteristics, consequences and eradication efforts. In M. Bray, A. Mazawi, & R. Sultana (Eds.), Private tutoring across the Mediterranean: constructions, deconstructions and implications for learning and equity (pp. 93–113). Rotterdam: Sense. Kontogiannopoulou-Polydorides, G. (1995). Sociological Analysis of Greek Education: The Entrance Examinations. Athens: Gutenberg [in Greek]. Kyridis, A., Tsakiridou, H., Zagkos, C., Koutouzis, M., & Tziamtzi, C. (2011). Educational Inequalities and School Dropout in Greece. International Journal of Education, 3(2), 1–15. doi:10.5296/ije.v3i2.855 Meyer, H.-D., St. John, E., Chankseliani, M., & Uribe, L. (2013). Fairness in Access to Higher Education in a Global Perspective. (H.-D. Meyer, E. P. St. John, M. Chankseliani, & L. Uribe, Eds.). Rotterdam: SensePublishers. doi:10.1007/978-94-6209-230-3 Mountford-Zimdars, A., & Sabbagh, D. (2013). Fair Access to Higher Education: A Comparative Perspective. Comparative Education Review, 57(3, Special Issue), 359–368. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/671194