Panteion University

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Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences
Πάντειον Πανεπιστήμιο Κοινωνικών και Πολιτικών Επιστημών
Established: 1927
Type: Public
Chancellor: Panagiotis Tsiris
Vice-Chancellor: Andreas Lytras
Undergraduates: 16,500
Location: Athens, Greece
Former names: Panteios School of Political Sciences
Website: www.panteion.gr

The Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences (Greek: Πάντειον Πανεπιστήμιο Κοινωνικών και Πολιτικών Επιστημών), usually referred to simply as the Panteion University, is a university located in Athens, Greece. Founded in 1927, it is among the three oldest universities of political sciences in Europe.

Contents

[edit] Academic departments

The university consists of ten academic departments which function as independent academic units:

[edit] History

The central building of the Panteion University
The central building of the Panteion University

The Panteion University has a long history of a creative development linked not only to the course of higher education and the development of social sciences in Greece, but also to the wider social transformation of the country. It was founded in 1927 under the name School of Political Sciences, due to the envisagement of two persons who had studied at the Free School of Political Sciences in Paris, Georgios Fragoudis and Alexandros Pantos.

Pavlos Kountouriotis, the President of Greece at the time, inaugurated the central building of the University, which functioned for the first time on November 18, 1930, attended by 200 students. Alexandros Pantos demised his fortune to the School, which was republished by the Prime Minister of Greece, Eleftherios Venizelos, making the institute stable in the academical scene of the country. It was in 1931 when the School was renamed to Panteios School of Political Sciences.

At the beginning, the contribution of the Minister for National Education, George Papandreou, was very important for the School, which consisted of two departments, the Political-Historical and the Social-Economical, while the studies were planned for six semesters.

In 1936 the School was recognised as "Public Utility of Higher Education", providing a very useful degree and in 1937 it was turned into "Legal Person of Public Law". In 1951 the two departments were renamed to Department of Political Science and Department of Public Administration respectively, while the course of studies expanded to eight semesters in 1963.

After the reorganization of the Greek educational system in 1983, the Panteios School was divided into three departments: Political Science and International Studies, Public Administration, Sociology. In 1989 the School was renamed to its current name, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, and five new departments were created, these of: Communication and Mass Media, Psychology, Social Policy and Social Anthropology, Economic and Regional Development, General Department of Law. In the 1990s, two of the previous departments were split into two: Political Science and International Studies into: a) Political Science and History, b) International and European Studies, and Social Policy and Social Anthropology into: a) Social Policy, b) Social Anthropology. During the same period the pile expanded and improved.

Today the Panteion University is attended by about 8,000 active students, i.e. students who have completed up to eight semesters, while the total number of registered undergraduates is about 16,500. The undergraduate studies are planned for eight semesters. Teaching and administrative staff number about 500. It also offers thirteen postgraduate courses and includes three Research Institutes, eighteen Research Centres and four Laboratories[1]. It also cooperates with 65 universities and institutes from 17 european countries, and European MA Degree in Human Rights and Democratisation.

[edit] University units and services

[edit] Library

The Panteion University Library is located at the central building of the university and it covers an area of 1,750 m², divided into four floors. Its purpose is to provide the academic community with its variety of material. Provided that the university supports education and research, the Library offers automated services, printed and electronic collections, and online services as well. It also participates in national consortia, in order to exploit a wider range of the available information resources.

The Library has a reading room and it also operates as a lending library. Its collection covers the wide scientific area of social and political sciences with focus on sociology, history, law and political science, philosophy, psychology, economics, management, literature, information science, social anthropology, criminology, mathematics and accountancy. The collection consists of material written mainly in Greek and other languages such as English, French, German and Spanish.

The connection includes: 70,000 monographs, 547 active subscriptions in a total of 763 journals, more than 10,000 electronic journals, online databases, 15 bibliographic databases in CD-ROM which cover the period 1998-2002, 60 classical music CDs, 85 educational CD-ROMs, 20 maps, 500 VHS and DVDs of classical movies, and 308 slides from the National Gallery of London.

[edit] Participation in European frameworks

The Panteion University participates in several European Union programmes:

[edit] References

  1. ^ Panteion University of Athens (English). Greece index. Retrieved on 2008-02-27.

[edit] External links