1. Organization – structure

The University of the Aegean was founded in 1984 and is one of the newest regional Universities in Greece.

With 16 Departments, 15 postgraduate study programs, one program of choice studies and a community of 8,514 people – graduate and post-graduate students, academic and administrative personnel – it is one of the largest in the country. The University’s Chair is on Mytilini, but its departments and schools are spread over 5 Aegean islands (Samos, Mytilini, Chios, Rhodes, Syros), forming an academic and educational network that covers all Aegean prefectures.

Apart from the schools and departments based on Mytilini, the island also houses the Institution’s rectorate and central administrative services, the central library and research board.

2. Scientific and educational activities

Main characteristic of the departments of the University of the Aegean is the development of new cognitive subjects, mainly interdisciplinary, which correspond to both the Greek and international social reality, and to the requirements and aspirations of students for high quality studies with prospects for professional evolution and development. The implementation of new educational methods and the use of new technologies as a basic educational tool (e-class, distance learning), which are important innovations in the Greek academic world and strengthen the growth of the Society of Information in higher education, are particularly favoured by the University of the Aegean.

The University of the Aegean is an important research centre which promotes research in Greece, by connecting the academic world with the insular community through research development programs in the North and South Aegean, encouraging research at doctoral and postgraduate level, and connecting Greece with research centres abroad.

Every year the University organizes a significant number of conferences, meetings and events and invites numerous academics, scientists and artists, aiming to promote the scientific dialogue around cognitive areas which adhere to its educational and research activities.

The University of the Aegean offers seminars, on a different island every summer, within the framework of its summer school.

Finally, during the spring semester of 2004 began the organization of departments of teaching Greek as a foreign language within the framework of the School of Social Sciences on Mytilini.

3. Cultural activity

Students are active with numerous cultural activities which are encouraged by the University’s administration, are largely coordinated by student unions and are shaped through collective action in areas such as the theatre, dance and photography, music, magazine publication, and sport.

One of the most important activities of the University of the Aegean is the Cultural Week which takes place for 5 days every year at a different university unit. The Cultural Week offers students the opportunity to meet, get to known the other islands and university units of the Aegean and participate in cultural and sport activities.

The University of the Aegean, after closing its second decade of existence and having reached high educational and academic standards, seeks to continue evolving as a major player in the educational, scientific and cultural life in the Aegean islands.