FREE ESSAY ON THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ATHENS-GREECE

THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ATHENS-GREECE

tHE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ATHENS-GREECE
The University of Athens was inaugurated on 3 May 1837 and was housed in the residence of
architect Stamatis Cleanthes, on the north east side of the Acropolis. It was the first
University not only in the newly-established Greek State but in all the Balkans and the
Eastern Mediterranean in general. 
The Othonian University, as it was called before taking its present name, National and
Capodistrian University of Athens, consisted of four Faculties, Theology, Law, Medicine
and Arts (which included applied sciences and mathematics) It had 33 professors, 52
students and 75 non-matriculated auditors. 
New Classes began in a new building which designed by Danish architect Christian Hansen,
in November 1841. At the same time as the Main University Building was being erected,
work was also in progress on the library, the scientific collections, the laboratories
and the annexes essential for the teaching and training of the students. By 1840 fifteen
thousand volumes had been donated or purchased for the library. 
A major change in the stucture of the university came about in 1904, when the Faculty of
Arts was split into two separate Faculties : that of Arts and that of Sciences, the
latter consisting of the departments of Physics and Mathematics and the School of
Pharmacy. In 1919 a department of Chemistry was added, and in 1922 the school of Pharmacy
was renamed a Department. A further change came about when the School of Dentistry now
Department of was added to the Faculty of Medicine. 
In this first and heroic period for Greek education, the professors of the University
made superhuman efforts to bridge rhe gap between their newly founded institution and
equivalent ones in advanced countries with centuries of tradition behind them. 
In the meantime, the number of students was rising. From 52 in 1837 enrolment reached
3358 in 1866 and calculations inticate that as a proportion of the Greek State the
students represented a percentage higher than and sometimes in excess of that in the
European states twenty years laterand ten times greater than that of other Balkan states
and Russia. 
Between 1895 and 1911 an average of one thousand new students entered the Faculties each
year, a figure which rose to two thousand at the end of World War I. This led to the
decision to introduce entrance examinations for all the Faculties, beginning in the
academic year 1927-28. Since 1954 the number of students admitted each year has been
fixed by the Ministry of Education and Religion, on the proposal of the Faculties. 
In the 1960's construction work began on the University Campus in the suburb of Zografou.
The completed Campus buildings now include those of Arts and Theology, some Departments
of the Faculty of Sciences and the Students Hall of Residence. 
Bibliography
The university of Athens, Giorgios Nikolaou (1981) Livanis Press
History of education, Fotis Dimas (1990) Gutemberg Greece