National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

King Otto of Greece (Όθων) was the founder of the University of Athens.

The University of Athens was founded on 3 May 1837, by King Otto of Greece (in Greek, Othon) and was named in his honour Othonian University (Οθώνειον Πανεπιστήμιον). It was the first university in the liberated Greek state and in the surrounding area of Southeast Europe as well. It was also the second academic institution after the Ionian Academy. This fledgling university consisted of four faculties; Theology, Law, Medicine and Arts (which included applied sciences and mathematics). During its first year of operation, the institution was staffed by 33 professors, while courses were attended by 52 students and 75 non-matriculated "auditors".[4]

It was first housed in the residence of architects Stamatios Kleanthis and Eduard Schaubert, on the north slope of the Acropolis, in Plaka, which now houses the Museum of the University. In November 1841 the university relocated on the Central Building of the University of Athens, a building designed by Danish architect Christian Hansen. He followed a neoclassical approach, "combining the monument's magnificence with a human scale simplicity" and gave the building its H-shape.[6] The building was decorated by painter Carl Rahl, forming the famous "architectural trilogy of Athens", together with the building of the National Library of Greece (left of the university) and the building of the Athens Academy (right of the university). Construction began in 1839 in a location to the north of the Acropolis. Its front wing, also known as the Propylaea, was completed in 1842–1843. The rest of the wings' construction, that was supervised at first by Greek architect Lysandros Kaftantzoglou and later by his colleague Anastasios Theofilas, was completed in 1864. The building is nowadays part of what is called the "Athenian Neoclassical Trilogy".[6]

The historian and professor Konstantinos Paparrigopoulos, founder of the modern greek historiography, was elected Rector of the University in 1872.

The Othonian University was renamed to National University (Εθνικόν Πανεπιστήμιον) in 1862, following events that forced King Otto to leave the country.

Statue of the first Governor of Greece, Conte Ioannis Kapodistrias, whose name has been given to the University in 1932, after the unification of the Kapodistrias University (theoretical schools) and the National University (scientific schools).

A major change in the structure of the University came about in 1904, when the faculty of Arts was divided into two separate faculties: that of Arts (Σχολή Τεχνών) and that of Sciences (Σχολή Επιστημών), 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 was added to the faculty of medicine.

Between 1895 and 1911, an average of 1,000 new students matriculated each year, a number which increased to 2,000 at the end of World War I. This resulted in the decision to introduce entrance examinations for all the faculties, beginning for the academic year 1927–28. Since 1954 the number of students admitted each year has been fixed by the Ministry of Education and Religion, by proposal of the faculties.

The University Club building was founded in 1930. Today the building houses the Health Services Office, the Meals Department, the University Club reading rooms, and the Students Cultural Association (POFPA).[7][8]

From 1911 until 1932 the university was separated into the Kapodistrian University (the humanities departments; named after Ioannis Kapodistrias, the first head of state of the independent modern Greek state) and the National University (the science departments). In 1932, the two separate legal entities were merged into the "National and Kapodistrian University of Athens."

During the 1960s construction work began on the University Campus in the suburb of Ilissia, which houses the Schools of Philosophy, Theology and Sciences.[4]

In 2013, the University Senate made the decision to suspend all operations in the wake of the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs cutting 1,655 administrative jobs from universities around the country. In a statement, the University Senate said that "any educational, research and administrative operation of the University of Athens is objectively impossible".[9][10]

Political leaders who attended the University of Athens

Eleftherios Venizelos

Konstantinos Karamanlis

Andreas Papandreou

Nicos Anastasiades

Fifteen Greek prime ministers and three Greek presidents (Konstantinos Karamanlis served as both) have studied at the University of Athens, including Charilaos Trikoupis, Eleftherios Venizelos, Georgios Papandreou, Andreas Papandreou, Konstantinos Karamanlis, Karolos Papoulias, and most recently interim prime minister Vassiliki Thanou-Christophilou. Also, Constantine II, the last monarch of Greece, and Nicos Anastasiades, the current president of Cyprus, attended the university.

The University of Athens has also been home to a large number of other politicians, who were primarily Greek or Cypriot, such as Dora Bakoyannis, Kyriakos Mavronikolas, Georgios Alogoskoufis and Fofi Gennimata.

• Gerasimos Danilatos, physicist, inventor of the ESEM
• Sophia Frangou, psychiatrist
• John P. A. Ioannidis (DSc, 1996 and MD 1990), professor and medical researcher[32]
• Fotis Kafatos, biologist
• Michael N. Katehakis, applied mathematics and operations research
• Nikos Logothetis, neuroscientist
• Dimitri Nanopoulos, physicist
• Costas Soukoulis, physicist
• Georgios Papanikolaou, doctor, inventor of the Pap test
• Panayotis Varotsos, physicist
• Dimitrios Trichopoulos, cancer epidemiologist

• Giorgios Seferis, Nobel laureate (1963), poet[33]
• Odysseas Elytis, Nobel laureate (1979), poet[34]
• Cornelius Castoriadis
• Nikos Kazantzakis
• Emmanuel Kriaras
• Helene Ahrweiler
• Dimitra Fimi

• Stylianos Alexiou
• Yannis Sakellarakis

• Saint Nectarios of Aegina
• Ieronymos I of Athens, Archbishop of Athens and All Greece
• Anastasios of Albania, Archbishop of Albania
• Demetrios Trakatellis, Archbishop of America

• Apostolos Santas, Greek veteran of the Resistance against the Axis Occupation of Greece during World War II
• George Lucas Adamopoulos, founder of the only school in the Philippines founded by Greeks, Adamson University in Manila
• Panagiotis Pikrammenos, judge and caretaker prime minister
• Semni Karouzou, archaeology and curator