University of Crete

The University of Crete is a public institution on the largest and most beautiful island of Greece—Crete. It has branches in two cities: Rethymnon and Heraklion. The university was established in 1973, but education began only in the 1977–78 academic year. Therefore, it is a fairly young university, but it has already been noted as one of the best and developing universities. Today, the University of Crete is a member of the European Association of Universities, and also included in the ranking of the 500 best educational institutions in the world. In 2012 it received the title of the best university in Greece (in the Greek QS World University Rankings). The main specializations of the University are medical, technical, humanitarian and economic sciences. Currently, over 16,000 undergraduates and 2500 postgraduate students are registered here.

8 Greek universities are included in the ranking of the best universities in the world according “Higher Education 2019”. The University of Crete was ranked first of these 8 universities.

The University of Crete consistently holds one of 351-400 positions, followed by the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, which position ranges among 501-600 in the world and is the 5th among Greek universities. The third place among the Greek educational institutions takes the University of the Aegean Sea followed by the Aristotle University in Thessaloniki: it ranges among 601-800 positions, dropping from second to 4th place in Greece in 2019.

Athens University of Economics and Business fell from the third to the fifth place and ranges among 601-800 positions in the world ranking. The University of Ioannina ranks the 6th (was fourth) and has dropped from 501-600 positions to 601-800 in the world ranking. The University of Patras has fallen from 601-800 positions to 801-1000.

Currently, the world ranking of universities in 2019 is the largest comparative one: a performance table is created by evaluating universities in all of their “core missions”, including teaching, research, knowledge transfer and perspectives.

As one of the leading Greek universities, the University of Crete is attractive thanks to advanced teaching methods and strongest curricula.

On the campus of Gialos, 2,5 miles from the center of Rethymnon, are the School of Philosophy (Departments of Philosophy and Social Sciences, History, Archeology and Philology), the School of Education (Departments of Primary Education, Preschool Education) and the School of Social Sciences (Departments of Economics, Psychology, Sociology, Political Science).

School of Science and Engineering (Departments of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, Physics, Biology, Computer Science, Chemistry, Materials Science and Technology), as well as the famous School of Medicine, which operates at the University Hospital, especially its departments such as radiology, morphology, and laboratory medicine are on campus of Voutes, 6 miles from the center of Heraklion.

The School of Philosophy and Social Sciences is among the oldest pillars of the university, and have an excellent reputation. It is also worth noting that the University of Crete is considered to be particularly strong in terms of postgraduate programs (graduate schools, postgraduate studies and residencies), so young researchers should come here for an excellent career experience.

Every year, the state allocates funds to finance the research activities in the University of Crete, as evidenced by its own university projects in the field of natural and exact sciences (engineering, physics, medicine), and joint research with other universities, commercial laboratories and organizations. In addition, the University conducts research in collaboration with the institutes of the Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas, and the Institute of Marine Biology and Genetics (IMBG).

The University of Crete occupies several modern buildings, which are works of strong architecture. One of the main advantages of the University of Crete is its location. The main part is in the city of Rethymnon (here are the faculties of philosophy, social sciences and pedagogy), another one—in the city of Heraklion (the faculties of exact sciences, engineering and medicine). This arrangement allows students not only to study and live in a wonderful climate, but also to get acquainted with the beauty of the majestic island, moving from one campus to another.

The university has a historical museum, a central hospital, its own observatory and several research centers. In addition, it should be noted that there are many shops, student cafes, bars and well-equipped sports halls as well as beaches on the coast of the warm Aegean Sea.

 

Some curious facts concerning the University of Crete:

  • A few decades ago, the University of Crete acquired its own observatory to observe the motion of comet Halley, which took place at a close distance from the Earth in 1986.
  • The University of Crete Library has the largest collection of scientific publications in Greece; here you can find rare books on the history of the Greek state as well as the works of ancient Greek philosophers.
  • The University of Crete is one of the elitist educational institutions in Europe! Here you can get an education of Bachelor, Master and Doctor of Science. The university has 16 undergraduate degree programs as routes to Bachelor’s degrees and 36 undergraduate degree programs—to Master’s degrees.

Universities of Greece are very loyal to applicant-foreigners, because the selection of applicants is carried out only on the basis of certificates. For admission to the selected faculty of the University of Crete, an applicant must be provided with a high school diploma (11 classes) and an insert where grades have been converted to a Greek 20-point scale. For entering the master’s course, the future student needs a bachelor’s degree from a Russian university. The papers should be translated into Greek and undergo a certification procedure in the department of the Ministry of Education in Russia.

For many foreigners, knowledge of the language becomes a problem, since it will be necessary to study Greek in order to get higher education. Sometimes schools (for example, businesses schools) provide information in English. For admission you will have to confirm the knowledge of this language. But usually the training system is built in such a way that all information is provided in Greek. Foreigner can additionally attend language courses.

Compliance with these conditions is not enough for admission, because you still need to pay for tuition, find housing, etc. All the problems will come after the selection committee, where the documents are submitted, gives a positive answer. There are many reasons why you should come to Greece for admission to a higher education institution:

  1. Low cost of training: sometimes foreigners can even study for free, while for others the price can be very affordable compared to many countries.
  2. There are a large number of courses, specializations, trainings. The Greeks perfectly teach all the sciences, but educational programs created specifically for training are best used by almost all universities in Greece.

All it is worth learning the language and coming here.