11 - Greece - Curriculum
Curricula in tertiary education are elaborated by the institutions and are approved by the YPEPTH.
Curriculum in Higher Technological Education
Following the decision of the Minister of National Education and Religious Affairs issued upon opinion
of the competent Committee of the National Council of Education (ΕΣΥΠ/ESYP), general rules
applying to the elaboration of curricula, academic credits, the percentage of elective courses, the total
number of courses required to receive a degree and any other relevant issue are specified on a single
basis for all Technological Education Institutions (TEI).
Based on the above, the General Assembly of every TEI Department is drafting –following a committee
proposal- the Curriculum which is approved by the TEI Board based on its compatibility with the
Department’s study agenda.
The Curriculum includes the courses’ title, their content, the weekly hours and the type of teaching
(theory, workshop, practice, seminars, etc.) Moreover, it determines the time sequence or
interdepence of the courses, provided that these have been characterized as pre-requisites of other,
dependent classes.
The courses provided in the TEI/ΑΣΠΑΙΤΕ departments are described as compulsory, compulsory
elective, or optional. During registration or when registration is renewed at the beginning of each
semester, students submit their personal curriculum, which must reflect the relationship between
prerequisite and dependent courses as decided by the Department. With the exception of this
obligation, students draw up independently their personal programme of studies, taking into
consideration that the distribution of the courses over semesters is indicative, according to the
Department curriculum, and not compulsory for students.
Concurrently, various research programmes have been developed in TEI as a result of the
multifaceted role of the Institutes and their co-operation with other TEI, faculties, departments and
research centres.
Each department of Technological Education Institutes offer courses on foreign languages, thus
providing students with the opportunity to learn one or more languages throughout their studies.
Ministry of National Education and Religious Affairs (YP.E.P.TH.)
In University institutions of higher education, the Department is the main operating academic unit,
which covers a discipline’s field of knowledge.
Pursuant to the provisions of Law 2083/1992, a Department is competent, inter alia, to determine its
overall educational and research policy; plan and specify the strategy of its development; elaborate
and revise the curriculum; and formulate its opinion regarding the specialisations or directions of the
Department’s degree
The curriculum, which is established by the department’s General Assembly, is adapted to the number
of semesters required to receive a degree. For each degree this number is determined by a
presidential decree issued upon the advice of the National Education Council and relevant Schools.
The curriculum of every University department contains the titles of compulsory courses, their subject
matter, the number of hours of classes per week, including each and every teaching task,
chronological sequence or interdependence of courses, the number of credits (didaktikes monades -
δμ/dm) corresponding to each course and the minimum number of credits required for the student to
obtain a degree. In addition, the curriculum of each department or faculty determines compulsory,
elective and optional courses. It also specifies whether students are obliged to spend a period of
compulsory apprenticeship in workplaces under the supervision of the Department.
A department may include in its curriculum courses from other departments and provide courses to
other departments of the same faculty (usually, teaching takes place simultaneously). The specific
details are regulated in the curriculum of the academic year concerned and in conjunction with the
interested departments. The curriculum may be amended by way of decision of the Department’s
General Assembly.
In many university departments and, first and foremost, at the Translation – Interpretation Departments
and the Departments of Foreign Languages and Literature (English, French, German, Italian and
Spanish language and literature), many courses (especially the compulsory ones) are taught in the
respective target language.
Moreover, many higher education institutions in the context of their educational and wide training
mission provide students with the opportunity to learn one or more languages throughout their studies,
since these are necessary tools for their scientific development. They also offer them intensive courses
of linguistic preparation for undergraduate and postgraduate studies abroad.
Postgraduate Study Programmes
The detailed curricula, the courses taught, the number of hours provided for each course, the time
required for granting a Postgraduate Specialisation Degree (Metaptychiako Diploma Eidikefsis -
ΜΔΕ/MDE), etc are drawn up by the Special General Assembly of the Department and are approved
by the Senate of the corresponding tertiary education institute. The operation of a Postgraduate Study
Programme is finally approved by way of a decision of the Minister of National Education and Religious
Affairs.
According to Law 2916/2001, departments of technological education institutes (TEI) may act jointly in
the operation of Postgraduate Study Programmes (ΠΜΣ/PMS), which are organised in a university with
the participation of TEI Teaching Faculty (ΕΠ/EP) or by providing premises and facilities or by
organising ΠΜΣ/PMS together with university departments, provided that certain evaluation criteria are
met. In any other case, degrees are given by the Universities.
Professors invited from other university and research institutions in the country and abroad may
participate in the materialisation of a ΠΜΣ/PMS, in addition to the Teaching and Research Faculty
(ΔΕΠ/DEP) of the Department.
By way of decision of the Special General Assembly, the internal regulation of a ΠΜΣ/PMS specifies
whether doctoral candidates are obliged to attend doctoral level courses or not; and the total duration
set for the elaboration of the thesis, according to the cognitive field.
Pursuant to this Law, Greek universities may cooperate with acknowledged similar institutes abroad in
order to organise and run joint postgraduate study programmes and/or for the elaboration of a doctoral
thesis. For the common postgraduate studies, a Special Cooperation Protocol (EPS) is drafted
between the cooperating Institutions, which determines the subject of the program and, by case, the
scientific fields of the post-doctoral studies, the language or languages of teaching and writing the
dissertation or PhD, etc. The new framework-law of 2007 on higher education gives the possibility to
complete a Phd or to organize in part or in whole a graduate or post-graduate program of studies in a
foreign language.
Institutions:
Ministry of National Education and Religious Affairs (YPEPTH)
Eurydice - the information network on education in Europe
Date: 2009
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