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The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greek: Εθνικόν και Καποδιστριακόν Πανεπιστήμιον Αθηνών), usually referred to simply as the University of Athens, is the oldest university in the region of the eastern Mediterranean and has been in continuous operation since its establishment in 1837.

Today, it is the second-largest institution of higher learning in Greece, with more than fifty thousand undergraduate students. Its main campus is in Ilissia, where the schools of Science, Theology and Philosophy are located. Other smaller campuses are at Goudi, where the School of Health Sciences is located, and at Daphne, where the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports Science is located. The Faculties of Media, Education, Economics, Law and Public Administration are housed in buildings in the centre of Athens. The historical administration building is also located there, on Panepistimiou avenue.

The Propylaea, part of the "Trilogy" of Theofil Hansen, serves as the ceremony hall and rectory

History

It was founded on 1837 April 3 on the initiative of King Otto, and thus initially called Othonian University. It started regular operations on 1839 in the house of Stamatios Kleanthis at the foot of the Acropolis. 1841 saw the completion of the new university building, designed by Danish architect Theofil Hansen as part of the 'Trilogy', in the center of Athens. Today the university rectory is housed there. On 1843, the university was renamed National University.

The university took its present name in 1911, because of a large endowment by the merchant Ioannis Dombolis, a friend of John Capodistria, for the creation of a Capodistrian University.

Faculties and Departments

The University of Athens is divided into schools, faculties and departments as follows. The naming isn't consistent in English for historical reasons, but in Greek the largest divisions are generally named "σχολές" (schools) and are divided in "τμήματα" (departments), furthermore subdivided in "τομείς" (divisions).

School of Theology
- Faculty of Theology
- Faculty of Social Theology
School of Philosophy
- Faculty of Philology
- Faculty of History and Archaeology
- Faculty of Philosophy, Pedagogy and Psychology
- Faculty of English Language and Literature
- Faculty of French Language and Literature
- Faculty of German Language and Literature
- Faculty of Italian and Spanish Language and Literature
- Faculty of Theatre Studies
- Faculty of Music Studies
- Faculty of Turkish and Modern Asian Studies
Schools of Health Sciences
School of Medicine
School of Dentistry
School of Pharmacy
- Faculty of Nursing
School of Law, Economics and Political Sciences
- Department of Law
- Department of Economics
- Department of Political Science and Public Administration
School of Sciences
- Faculty of Physics
- Faculty of Biology
- Faculty of Geology
- Department of Chemistry
- Department of Mathematics
- Department of Informatics and Telecommunications
Independent faculties
- Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Science
- Faculty of Primary Education
- Faculty of Early Childhood Education
- Faculty of Communication and Media Studies
- Faculty of Philosophy and History of Science

The main campus is in Ilissia (Zografou), where the schools of Science, Theology and Philosophy are located. Other smaller campuses are at Goudi, where the faculty of Health Sciences is located, and at Daphne, where the faculty of Physical Education and Sports Science is located. The faculties of Media, Education, Economics, Law and Public Administration are housed in buildings in the centre of Athens, along with various administration facilities. The historical administration building is also located there, on Panepistimiou avenue.

Research

Research in the University of Athens is intimately linked with that conducted in the hospitals and research institutes of the metropolitan area, including the National Research Center for Physical Sciences Demokritos, the National Research Foundation (EIE), the National Observatory of Athens, the Hellenic Pasteur Institute, the Alexander Fleming Biomedical Sciences Research Center, the Athens High Performance Computing Laboratory, the National Centre for Marine Research (NCMR) and the Foundation for Biomedical Research of the Academy of Athens (IBEAA). Research conducted in the institutes of the metropolitan area of Athens accounted for over 50% of the ISI-indexed scientific publications coming from Greece in 2004.