Athanasios Gelasakis

Agricultural University of Athens

The Agricultural University of Athens (formerly Highest Agricultural School of Athens) is the third oldest University in Greece. For over eighty years now, it has been serving agricultural sciences producing high quality graduates as well as scientific knowledge through basic and applied research. Situated in a 25-hectare green campus that stretches on both sides of the historic Iera Odos (the Sacred Way of antiquity), close to the centre of Athens, at the heart of the ancient Olive Grove, the Universityύs 16 building complexes comprise auditoriums, 41 fully equipped laboratories, a modern library, computer rooms, exemplary agricultural facilities (an arboretum, a vineyard, experimental fields, a flower garden, greenhouses, a cowshed, a sheep pen, a chicken coop, dairy installations, aquaculture tanks), museums, a student center, an indoor gym, sports fields etc. In these ideal surroundings, the students of the various faculties of the University are taught the principles of Agricultural Science during ten semesters. The University consists of seven faculties: Crop Science, Animal Science, Agricultural Biotechnology, Rural Economics & Development, Food Science & Technology, Natural Resources Management & Agricultural Engineering as well as a Science Faculty. The first six faculties confer a Degree in Agriculture in their corresponding fields. Instruction during the first nine semesters includes lectures, laboratory work and field trips, while the tenth semester is devoted to the composition of a graduate thesis. The undergraduate curriculum is structured as a common core program for all faculties in the first five or six semesters, and as specialized faculty programs in the remaining semesters. Four months of practical training are also required to ensure familiarization with actual farm conditions.