Higher Education in Greece

Greece offers centuries of culture and great  landscapes, along with quality  higher education if you want to pursue your studies here. Then Greece is a definite answer for you. Higher Education in Greece constitutes the last level of education system that comprises the Technological and University sectors. The University sector includes Technical Universities, Fine Arts schools and Universities. The Technological sector covers the School of Pedagogical and Technological Education (ASPETE) and Technological Education Institutions (TEIs). All institutions of higher education in Greece are self-administered legal entities of public law and hence they are all collective bodies that act in compliance with special legislation that administer each institution.

In the year 1837, the first Greek University was established in Athens and then many other Universities were established one after another throughout Greece during the 20th century. The organisation and the operation of Universities in recent years have been mainly regulated and defined by article 16, according to which all higher education is exclusively provided by Higher Education Institutions and is public, which are all Legal Entities under Public Law, enjoying academic freedom and full self-administration, while they are financed by the government and are subject to the state supervision. The Religious Affairs and the Ministry of Education takes care of the State supervision.

Given below are some of the missions of the Institutions of Higher Education in Greece:

• They aim for teaching and research and promote knowledge and prepare students to use the acquired knowledge at their various professional lives and to boost culture and arts.
  
  
• They use modern teaching methods like distance learning, etc. to offer higher education on the basis of technological research and high quality scientific which follows international criteria.
  
  
• To take good care of student’s knowledge about the labour market and also to create proper conditions for the emergence of new researchers and to develop students’ critical thinking and skills.
  
  
• To meet the country’s development needs and the labour market needs as well as to promote the optimization of research results, knowledge dissemination and of innovation focusing on the social cohesion, sustainable development and scientific ethics.
  
  
• To promote good relation with other foreign or even Greek research institutions and organisations. To promote student and stuff mobility for the construction of the Research Area and European Higher Education.
  
  
• To create responsible citizens who can easily cope up with all human activities and demands with professional, cultural and scientific sufficiency and also to respect values such as freedom, justice, social solidarity and democracy.
  

To accomplish their mission, all institutions and universities in Greece are organized and operate on the basis of the following principles:

• the scientific and research ethics
• freedom in research and teaching
• the efficiency in managing infrastructures, resources and other stuff
• the quality of education and of the services that the institutions provide
• the proper maintenance of transparency in all activities carried out by the Greek universities and institutions
• the impartiality while decision making
• the meritocracy when dealing with the various stuff
• the equal treatment of men and women and respect of diversity.
  

Higher Education Sectors

Higher Education in Greece is mainly divided into two sectors: the Technological Sector and the University Sector.  The University Sector mainly aims at to producing, establishing and developing science and technology and achieving country's future scientists’ high level, theoretical, comprehensive and applied training while promoting and developing scientific research. Whereas, the Technological Sector aims at developing the technological and scientific research and provide programmes of more applied character.

Cycles of Study in Greece

The studies in Greece are well divided into three cycles -