University of Thessaly (Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλίας)

The University of Thessaly (UTH; Greek: Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλίας) is a public university in Thessaly, Greece, founded in 1984. The university includes the main campus in the city of Volos and regional campuses located in Karditsa, Larissa, Trikala, and the city of Lamia. The university's ccentral administrative and academic building, located on the seaport seafront, is often referred to as the main campus, but actually the university does not have a single main site, as it has multi sites with buildings being geographically distributed within the wider region of Volos across the city districts. Enrollement for Fall 2014 consisted of 14,000 undergraduate students, 2,150 master's degree-level students, 1,400 doctoral students, and 710 faculty members.

Emblem

The emblem of the University of Thessaly is Chiron, who used to live in Pelion Mountain and was famous for his special knowledge about medicine, music, archery, hunting, gymnastics, and the art of prophecy.

History

Most university departments were founded by the end of 2001. In 2013, the University of Central Greece (UCG) main campus (2003-2013) in the City of Lamia and its Department of Computer Science and Biomedical Informatic merged with University of Thessaly. This was followed in 2019 by the Technological Educational Institute of Central Greece (TEICG) main campus (2013-2019) in the City of Lamia and its Departments of Nursing, Physiotherapy, Computer Science, and Electronic Engineering also merged with University of Thessaly. Since then these are the existing two sites of the University of Thessaly in the City of Lamia.

Academics

The language of instruction is Greek, although there are programs in foreign languages and courses for international students, which are carried out in English, French, German, and Italian. The university includes eight Faculties (shown in the table below), further divided into departments. Each department includes undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes.

Faculties	Departments	Campuses
Faculty of Agriculture Sciences (5 years, Volos)	Science of Animal Production Science of Foods and Nutrition Agriculture and Agricultural Technology Ichthyology and Aquatic Environment Agriculture, Crop Production and Rural Environment	Larissa Karditsa Larissa Volos Volos
Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences ( Larissa)	Economics Business Management Accounting and Finance	Volos Larissa Larissa
Faculty of Engineering (Polytechneio, 5 years) ( Volos)	Architecture Civil Engineering Mechanical Engineering Planning and Regional Development Electrical and Computer Engineering	Volos Volos Volos Volos Volos
Faculty of Technology ( Larissa)	Environment Digital Systems Energy Technologies Forestry, Wood Sciences, and Design (5 years)	Larissa Larissa Larissa Karditsa
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences ( Volos)	Special Education Primary Education Early Childhood Education Language and Intracultural Studies Culture, Creative Media, and Industries Philology Archaeology History Mythological Studies Literature	Volos Volos Volos Volos Volos Volos Volos Volos Volos Volos
Faculty of Physical Education Sciences, Sports, and Dietetics ( Trikala)	Nutrition and Dietetics Physical Education and Sport Science	Trikala Trikala
Faculty of Health Sciences ( Larissa)	Biochemistry and Biotechnology Public and Community Health Veterinary Science (5 years) Medicine (6 years) Nursing Physiotherapy	Larissa Karditsa Karditsa Larissa Larissa City of Lamia
Faculty of Science ( City of Lamia)	Physics Mathematics Computer Science and Telecommunications Computer Science and Biomedical Informatics	City of Lamia City of Lamia City of Lamia City of Lamia
Separate Departments	General Department (graduate studies) General Department (graduate studies)	City of Lamia Larissa

The General Department refers to a Division of Graduate Studies or Graduate School that offers graduate programmes. Each of University of Thessaly Faculties offer graduate programmes. The Faculty of Health Sciences is associated with the General University Hospital of Larissa.

Staff

The university staff is divided into five main categories:

Teaching and research staff: The staff is this category undertakes the majority of the teaching and research work done in the unversity. It comprises professors, associate professors, assistant professors, and lecturers.
Scientific teaching staff: This category consists of former teaching and research assistants. Their main role is to cooperate with the Teaching and Research staff and assist them in their teaching responsibilities.
Special laboratory teaching staff: The members of this category are administering the university laboratories and they undertake special applied and laboratory teaching work.
Special technical laboratory staff: They are responsible of keeping the laboratory equipment in good condition and upgrade it whenever necessary in order to stay up to date. They also provide specific technical laboratory services and help with the laboratory teaching.
Administrative staff: This category comprises all employees working in administrative positions.

The educational work is also exercised by guest professors and scientists who are invited to teach specific courses.

Academic evaluation

In 2015 the external evaluation committee gave University of Thessaly a Positive evaluation. An external evaluation of all academic departments in Greek universities was conducted by the Hellenic Quality Assurance and Accreditation Agency (HQA) in the previous years.

University Units

Library and Information Center

Library and Information Center of University of Thessaly was founded in 1995. Its central building is hosted in the renewed building of the old Athens Bank, which was built in 1903, and is located in the center of Volos. Moreover, there are branches of the Library that operate in every faculty in all cities of University of Thessaly. The Kitsos Makris Folklore Center is also part of the University of Thessaly Library & Information Center.

Residence Hall

University of Thessaly owns a small Student Residence Hall in Volos with a capacity of 40 rooms. There is also an accommodation grant of 100€ per month for the undergraduate foreign students of countries outside EU. For the Greek students and also the students of countries who are members of the EU, there is an accommodation grant of 1000€ per year depending on academic and financial criteria. There are plans for the development of a new large scale residence hall in the near future.

Psychological Counselling and Support for Students

The Laboratory of Psychology and Educational Applications of the Department of Special Education offers psychological support and help to all students who need it, in order to deal with their personal difficulties and concerns, and it also helps in developing skills on how to manage potential problems, such as problems in student life, difficulties in personal relations, and other psychological disorders. The students make an appointment with the psychologist of the Laboratory, either individually or in groups; they also may participate in seminars that are organised in regular time intervals. All services are provided free of charge and the meetings have confidential character.

KEDIVIM

The Centre of Continuing Education and Lifelong Learning (KEDIVIM; Greek: Κ.Ε.ΔΙ.ΒΙ.Μ - Κέντρο Επμόρφωσης και Δια Βίου Μάθησης) of University of Thessaly is a separate continuing and professional adult educational unit within University of Thessaly, at "non-typical education" (φορέας μη τυπικής εκπαίδευσης), although it is fully or partially regulated by the state and leads to officially recognised qualifications being considered non-formal education (NFE). It offers short-term courses on-campus and, by Distance e-Learning Mode, off-campus mediated in real-time computer-mediated communication, certified by the EOPPEP - National Organisation for the Certification of Qualifications and Vocational Guidance (Greek: Εθνικός Οργανισμός Πιστοποίησης Προσόντων και Επαγγελματικού Προσανατολισμού - Ε.Ο.Π.Π.Ε.Π). In Greece, adult education, continuing education, or lifelong learning is offered to students of all adult ages.

Culture and Sports

University of Thessaly offers the possibility of many sports and cultural activities. There are many student groups consisting of the team of Physical Education, Musical Ensembles, Theater Group, Photography Group, etc. In the beginning of every semester, the students have the opportunity to enter in every action that are interested in. Moreover, there is plenty of student groups that undertake cultural actions such as Cinema Group and University of Thessaly Student Radio.

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