Greek president attends event for Polytechnic's 180th anniversary

The National Technical University of Athens is connected to the great struggles of the Greek people for independence, democracy and social progress, Greek President Prokopios Pavlopoulos said during an event on Tuesday that marked the institution's 180th anniversary.
1'

The event for the university, known also as "National Metsovion" and "the Polytechnic", was held at the Athens Concert Hall opened by its president, Yiannis Golias, and also attended by Education Minister Costas Gavroglou and actor Grigoris Valtinos.

The Polytechnic was the third university to be founded in Greece (1837), after the Athens and Thessaloniki Universities. It was initially founded to train craftsmen in the building sector. In 1917 it opened five engineering schools, for civil, mechanical/electrical, architectural, chemical and topography engineers.

Today it includes nine schools, has 743 teaching and research staff of various levels, 175 technical instructors, and about 12,700 students.