National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

Contact point / Staff Involved and title:
Savvas Genitsaris, Assistant Professor of Structure and Function of Biocommunities of Aquatic Systems in the School of Biology;, Fragkiskos Kolisis, Emeritus Professor of Chemical Engineering;, Maria Moustaka-Gouni, Professor of Hydrobiology - Hydroecology, and Stathis Alonaris, MSc student of the School of Biology

The idea of establishing a University in Greece emerged alongside with the Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution. The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, officially founded in April 14th, 1837, is the first University not only of Greece but both the Balkan peninsula and the Eastern Mediterranean region. The University of Athens is divided into schools, faculties and departments as follows. The academic staff is comprised of 2,109 high-level professors. In 2024, there are 41,454 undergraduate and 25,417 postgraduate (doctoral too) students registered.

The naming is nοt consistent in English for historical reasons, but in Greek the largest divisions are generally named schools and are divided in departments, furthermore subdivided infaculties. The University of Athens also offers an English-taught 4-year undergraduate programme (with tuition) in Archaeology, History, and Literature of Ancient Greece. It is considered the leading university of Greece, a leading European regional university and is present in the top universities annual lists. The most recent is the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities of 2019 that listed it in the 219th place out of 12,000 universities worldwide (1st in Greece, 70th in Europe) with very high perspectives regarding the university’s openness