Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides officially opened the University of Nicosia (UNIC) Athens branch on Thursday.
The inauguration marks a historic moment for Greek education. It is the first major international branch of a Cypriot university to open in Greece under the country’s new framework for non-state, non-profit higher education.
In the Greek context, UNIC is categorized as a non-state, non-profit university branch. While the University of Nicosia in Cyprus is a private institution, its Greek branch operates under the specific “Article 16” legislative reforms introduced by the Mitsotakis government, which allow foreign universities to establish branches in Greece as non-profit entities.
“When we decided to take the major step of legislating the possibility of establishing branches of foreign universities in our country – equal to Greek public higher education institutions – we always had in mind modern units of exceptionally high academic standards, with excellent infrastructure, care for students, and studies connected to the labor market,” Mitsotakis said.
“We envisioned higher education institutions that would be open to the world and aligned with the challenges and opportunities of our time,” he added.
The Athens campus is a collaboration between the University of Nicosia and the Hellenic Healthcare Group (HHG), the largest private healthcare provider in Greece (which owns hospitals like Hygeia and Metropolitan).
The university is located in the Elliniko district of southern Athens. The current facility is a state-of-the-art 12,500-square-meter complex in Elliniko-Argyroupoli. A massive expansion is planned.
Phases II and III will integrate the campus directly into The Ellinikon smart-city project, eventually growing the total facility to roughly 112,000 square meters by 2030, making it one of the largest research complexes in Europe.
While the flagship program is its Medical School, the university has received accreditation for several undergraduate and postgraduate programs. Most programs are taught in English.
