The University of the Aegean (Greek: Πανεπιστήμιο Αιγαίου) is a public, multi-campus university located in Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Rhodes, Syros and Lemnos, Greece. It was founded on March 20, 1984, by the Presidential Act 83/1984 and its administrative headquarters are located in the town of Mytilene, on the island of Lesvos.^[2][3][4]

The university today comprises five Schools and 18 Departments offering undergraduate and post-graduate degrees programmes. This growth was based on the administration's belief that its sustainability could only be based on its potential to grow into a substantially large institute, initially in department numbers supporting its educational side and secondly in postgraduate courses in support of its research nature.^[5][6]

The University of the Aegean, like all universities in Greece, is a public university. As such, its educational activities and a small part of its research activities rely upon government funding. Since 2014, the University has been facing severe economic hardship due to austerity policies resulting in minimal state funding.^[7][8]

The emblem of the University of the Aegean is the Sphinx.

As described in its mandate, the University of the Aegean is a university which embodies a unique structure which combines campuses across six islands of the Aegean Sea.

There is a student population of approximately 10,000 active students enrolled at the university, 8,200 in undergraduate programmes and 2,000 in Postgraduate programmes with a faculty of over 380.^{[9][10][11][12][13][14]}

Furthermore, in 2011, the Teaching and Research Staff numbered 292 people (55 professors, 70 associate professors, 128 assistant professors, and 39 lecturers), the Scientific Teaching Staff numbered 99 and the Special Laboratory Teaching Staff 23 people, supported by 30 members of the Special Technical Laboratory Staff for teaching services and 304 members of administrative staff.^[15]

The University of the Aegean consists of five Schools and eighteen Departments that form the five University Units based on six islands of the Aegean Sea – Lesvos, Chios, Rhodes, Samos, Syros and Lemnos. As of 2013, all departments are organised in the five existing Schools – Humanities, Sciences, Business Studies, Social Studies and Environmental Studies.^[16]

The University is ranked 801st–1000th in The Times Higher Education (THE) annual list.^[39]

The first department to operate, in the academic year 1984-85, was the department of Business Administration, in the island of Chios. In the following year, the Department of Primary School Education, in Rhodes, and the Postgraduate Course on Environmental Studies began operating. At the end of the first five years of operation, the University comprised 7 departments and 1 postgraduate course, "however, in 1997 a remarkable development was initiated by exploiting available [european] funding opportunities".^[5][47][48]

The university was officially founded in 1984, although its historical roots date back to the early 1920s, to the Ionian University of Smyrna (Ex Oriente Lux, Light from the East) which while established never operated.^[49][50]

The foundations of the University of the Aegean date back to October 1918, when Greece had expanded its geographic borders to the wider Smyrna area after World War I. At the time, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens was the only University in Greece.

Professor Constantin Carathéodory who was a professor at the University of Berlin at the time proposed the establishment of a new University – the difficulties regarding the establishment of a Greek university in Constantinople led him to consider three other cities: Thessaloniki, Chios and Smyrna.^[51][52] Despite the political turbulence of the era over the city of Smyrna, the famous mathematician constructed a "plan for the creation of a new University in Greece", named “Ionian University” on 20 October 1919. ^[53]

The city of Smyrna in Asia Minor was one of the cultural centres of the Ionian civilisation closely associated with Ancient Greek philosophy.

Consequently, the greek government decided to materialize Carathéodory's vision and establish the Ionian University, based in Smyrna (today's city of İzmir, Turkey) on 1 December 1920. Constantin Carathéodory was the first dean of the university. However, the Ionian University stopped its operations due to the Great Fire of Smyrna in 1922. The new Greek University in the broader area of the Southeast Mediterranean region, as originally envisioned by Carathéodory, finally materialised with the establishment of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 1925.^[54]

Permanent Chairs and general research staff amount to approximately 400, supported by a further 100 scientific teaching staff and 53 teaching assistants. There is also a further 304 members of administrative and student affairs staff.^{[9][33]: 7, 52}

Every year the university offers e-Learning courses.^[58]

• Renee Hirschon, former Chair of the Department of Social Anthropology; currently a research affiliate at the University of Oxford^[63]
• Eleni Myrivili, assistant professor at the Department of Cultural Technology & Communications, and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme's Chief Heat Officer

The University of Aegean library was founded in 1984 and it has ever since experienced modernization and ample development of its IT infrastructure, partly financed by EU programmes.

The library comprises more than 100,000 book titles, and more than 1,000 printed academic journal titles covering areas of Economics, International and European Economic Studies, Business Administration, Management Science and Marketing, Informatics, Statistics, Accounting and Finance, and Management and Technology.

There are several academic, cultural and athletic groups active in all islands/university units.^[64][65]

• AIESEC Aegean – Branch of AIESEC Greece, based in Chios island.^[66]
• IEEE Student Branch University of Aegean – Student Branch of IEEE Greece (Region 8), established in 2000, based in Samos island.^[67][68]

• Universities in Greece, a list of public Universities offering higher education in Greece.
• List of research institutes in Greece
• European Higher Education Area
• University of Crete, a Greek university situated in Crete, established in 1973.
• Technical University of Crete, a Greek engineering university (Polytechnic) also situated in Crete, established in 1977.
• Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the largest university in the Balkans, established in 1925.
• Ionian University, a university located in the city of Corfu, established in 1984, in recognition of the island's contribution to higher education in Greece as the seat of Ionian Academy, the first Greek academic institution established in modern times (1844).
• University of the South Pacific, another university whose departments are distributed across multiple islands.
• University of the West Indies, another university whose campuses are distributed across multiple island countries.
• Study in Greece – Official portal for studies in Greece (in Greek and English)
• Hellenic Academic Libraries Link (HEAL-Link) (in Greek and English)
• Kallipos (e-books Greek academic publishing) (in Greek and English)
• Greek Research and Technology Network (GRNET) (in Greek and English)
• Ege University, similarly named university in Turkey
• Open access in Greece