University of Athens

The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greek: Εθνικόν και Καποδιστριακόν Πανεπιστήμιον Αθηνών), usually referred to simply as the University of Athens, is the oldest university in Greece and has been in continuous operation since its establishment in 1837. Today, it is the second-largest institution of higher learning in Greece (the largest is the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki), with more than fifty thousand undergraduate students.

History

National and Capodistrian University of Athens was founded on 3 May 1837, and was housed in the residence of architect Stamatis Kleanthes, on the north east side of the Acropolis. It was the first University not only in the newly- established Greek State but in all the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean in general.

The "Othonian University", as it was called before taking its present name, "National and Capodistrian University of Athens", consisted of four Faculties, Theology, Law, Medicine and Arts (which included applied sciences and mathematics). It had 33 professors, 52 students and 75 non-matriculated "auditors".New classes began in a new building, which designed by the Danish architect Christian Hansen, in November 1841.

A major change in the structure of the University came about in 1904, when the Faculty of Arts was split into two separate Faculties: that of Arts and that of Sciences, 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..

In this first and "heroic" period for Greek education, the University faculty made great efforts to fill the gap between their newly founded institution and older ones in other countries.

Between 1895 and 1911, an average of one thousand new students entered the Faculties each year, a figure which rose to two thousand at the end of World War I. This led to the decision to introduce entrance examinations for all the Faculties, beginning in the academic year 1927-28. Since 1954 the number of students admitted each year has been fixed by the Ministry of Education and Religion, on the proposal of the Faculties.

In the 1960's construction work began on the University Campus in the suburb of Ilissia. The Ilissia campus now houses the Schools of Philosophy, Theology and Sciences.

Academics and Schools

The University of Athens is divided into schools, faculties and departments as follows. The naming is nοt consistent in English for historical reasons, but in Greek the largest divisions are generally named “σχολές” (schools) and are divided in “τμήματα” (departments), furthermore subdivided in “τομείς” (divisions).

School of Theology
Faculty of Theology
Faculty of Social Theology

School of Philosophy
Faculty of Philology
Faculty of History and Archaeology
Faculty of Philosophy, Pedagogy and Psychology
Faculty of English Studies
Faculty of French Language and Literature
Faculty of German Studies
Faculty of Italian and Spanish Language and Literature
Faculty of Theatre Studies
Faculty of Music Studies
Faculty of Turkish and Modern Asian Studies
Faculty of Slavic Studies

Schools of Health Sciences
Faculty of Medicine
Faculty of Dentistry
Faculty of Pharmacy
Faculty of Nursing

School of Law, Economics and Political Sciences
Faculty of Law
Faculty of Economic Studies
Faculty of Political Science and Public Administration

School of Sciences
Faculty of Physics
Faculty of Biology
Faculty of Geology and Geoenvironment
Faculty of Chemistry
Faculty of Mathematics
Faculty of Informatics and Telecommunications

Independent faculties
Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Science
Faculty of Primary Education
Faculty of Early Childhood Education
Faculty of Communication and Mass Media Studies
Faculty of Philosophy & History of Science

University of Athens ranked 200th in the 2008 THES-QS World University Ranking

University of Athens ranked 177th in the 2009 THES-QS World University Ranking

University of Buenos Aires

The University of Buenos Aires (Spanish: Universidad de Buenos Aires, UBA) is the largest university in Argentina and the largest university by enrollment in Latin America,surpassing both the National Autonomous University of Mexico and the Universidade Estácio de Sá of Brazil.  Founded on August 12, 1821 in the city of Buenos Aires, it consists of 13 faculties, 6 hospitals, 10 museums and is linked to 3 high schools: Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires, Escuela Superior de Comercio Carlos Pellegrini and Instituto Libre de Segunda Enseñanza.

To enter any of the available programmes of study in the university, students who have successfully completed high school must pass a first year called CBC, which stands for Ciclo Básico Común (Common Basic Cycle). Only upon completion of this first year may the student enter the chosen faculty; until then, they must attend courses in different buildings, and have up to 3 years to finish the 6 subjects (which vary depending on the programme of study chosen) assigned in two groups of 3. Each subject is of one semester duration (March-July or August-November). If someone passes all 6 subjects in their respective semesters, the CBC will take only one year. Potential students of economics, instead, take a 2-year common cycle, the "CBG" (General Basic Cycle), comprising 12 subjects.

The UBA has no central campus. A centralized Ciudad Universitaria (literally, "university city") was started in the 1960s, but contains only two schools, with the others at different locations in Buenos Aires.

Access to the university is free of charge for everyone, including foreigners.

History

The University of Buenos Aires (UBA) was inaugurated 12 August, 1821 by the initiative of Bernardino Rivadavia - at the time Ministry of Government of Buenos Aires . Since then, the institution has followed, first as a provincial and then -since 1881- as a national University, the course that the country and city's history have taken. The institution has also gone along paths that contributed to its growth as a cultural and scientific academic centre and a place for the training of professionals, circulation and production of knowledge.  
   
In 1885, the "Avellaneda Law" was passed aiming at the organization of the two existing National Universities at that moment: Buenos Aires University and Córdoba University . This law provided a legal framework that contemplated the university autonomy and established the method to be applied to the naming and appointment of authorities. It also made the university responsible for issuing the degrees that enable the practise of different professions, assigning the institution, in this way, an institutional profile tightly linked to a Professional University - a characteristic which would be pointed out as a limitation to the scientific development of the university by some reformers.

When the National unification was completed, Argentina entered a process of integration to the worldwide market. This new situation involved responding to demands such as the reception of immigrant inhabitants and, together with it, the growth of cities; the development of an urbane infrastructure; the State's responsibility in connection to education and public health policies; and the creation of a political and administrative frame. The State's requirement of knowledge and professionals placed the University in a central position.  
   
  Throughout history, the University has shown the capacity of adapting in order to cater for the State's, the Markets', the production areas' and the Society's needs.
Different changes in Europe led to a transformation of the conceptions about scientific research in Argentina - as well as in the rest of the world- which were reflected in the University. There was a clash - specially seen in the Medicine and Law Schools -between the conceptions of a University focused on the professional development and a University concentrated on scientific research. By the end of XIX several museums and research centres were created: the Pathology Institute (1887), the Ethnographic Museum of the Faculty of Philosophy and Literature (1904), among others.

The UBA also underwent a process of democratization and experienced a progression in the modernization of knowledge early in its history. The Reform that took place between 1905 and 1906 established the values that represent the Argentine university tradition nowadays: those of autonomy and democracy; teaching, scientific research and university extension. This democratization implied, among other things, the incorporation of teachers in the election of authorities. The most significant achievement of the Reform was the constitution of a threefold government with the representation of teachers' senate, students and graduates.

The Reform also brought in its train a renewal of plans of studies concerning the ways of transmission and creation of spaces for research - which was tightly linked to the interest of groups of students and teachers intent on creating a scientific university.

It is worth highlighting the contributions that foreign thinkers and scientists - such as Ortega, Augusto Pi Suñer, Einstein, Le Corbousier and Gasset- made to this process of modernization.

In the 1930's both the democratization and autonomy of the University were jeopardized by the military coups and repressive actions that took place in the country.

Among the social and political turmoil, the UBA experienced, nonetheless, a process of scientific update which included the institutionalization of research teams, the upgrade of libraries and the creation of new courses of studies (sociology, psychology, economy, etc.). The spread of scientific information acquired a relevant place with the creation of the University Publishing House (EUDEBA). The creation of institutions which do not belong to the University such as the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA), the Institute of Industrial Technology (INTI) and the National Council of Scientific and Technical Investigation (CONICET) reinforced the concept of modernization propelled by a developmental ideology.

The University of Buenos Aires went through an institutional reconstruction during the first years of democracy. It regained autonomy and the threefold governmental structure.

In the 20 years of democracy in the university, basic functions were restored: teaching, research and University extension. In this period, plans have been updated and new courses of studies created.

One of the first innovations was the creation of the CBC which provided an answer to the gap in the articulation between high schools and university studies.
The long tradition of university extension was taken up again and the Secretary of Extension was created. One of its most important developments was the foundation of the Cultural Centre "Ricardo Rojas".

Academics and Schools

The faculties that compose the university are:
Ciclo Básico Común
Facultad de Psicología (psychology)
Facultad de Ingeniería (engineering)
Facultad de Odontología (dentistry)
Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica (pharmacy and biochemistry)
Facultad de Filosofía y Letras (philosophy and literature)
Facultad de Derecho (law)
Facultad de Medicina (medicine)
Facultad de Ciencias Sociales (social sciences)
Facultad de Veterinaria (veterinary medicine)
Facultad de Agronomía (agronomy)
Facultad de Ciencias Económicas (economics)
Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales (exact science and natural science)
Facultad de Arquitectura, Diseño y Urbanismo (architecture, design and urbanism)

Of these, only the last two have their buildings located in Ciudad Universitaria, a campus-like location in Núñez, in northern Buenos Aires. The others are scattered around the city in buildings of various sizes, with some having more than one building. There are projects to move more faculties to Ciudad Universitaria, the first one in order of importance it's the Faculty of Psychology, whose building is already designed to be emplaced in this Campus.

University of Buenos Aires ranked 197th in the 2008 THES-QS World University Ranking