Student Guide

The USP offered by the Department of Informatics and Telecommunications of NKUA leads to qualification in «Informatics and Telecommunications» with the accumulation of 240 credits (ECTS), implemented in 8 semesters and consists of two two-year cycles:

• The Basic Cycle, which consists of an introductory course, 16 Compulsory courses (YM), and 3 optional laboratory courses (EP), which provide basic knowledge in Informatics and Telecommunications.
• The Focused Cycle, offers 2 more Compulsory courses (YM); the rest of the courses are organized in 2 Tracks leading to 6 Specializations, in which the Department has a very high level of research activity. Students may pursue up to two specializations, which are listed in their final transcript of study. There is also the possibility of no specialization at all, as well as, the possibility to obtain a certificate of pedagogical and didactic competence in conformance with the terms and conditions set by NKUA.

Track A (conforming to ACM “Computer Science” curriculum) leads to three specializations
E1. Foundations of Computer Science
E2. Data and Knowledge Management
E3. Software

Track B (conforming to IEEE-CS “Computer Engineering” curriculum) leads to three specializations:
E4. Hardware and Architecture
E5. Communications and Networking
E6. Signal and Information Processing

In detail, the courses of the Focused Cycle of study are divided into:

1. Track Compulsory courses (EYM), Students submit the statement of their track of choice at the beginning of the 5th semester, before their statements of courses, and is compulsory for students wanting to register courses from the Focused Cycle of study. Students must choose one of the 2 tracks, even if they do not want to pursue any specialization. Students select 4 track compulsory courses and 1 track project. If they want to follow a specialization, 2 out of the 4 compulsory courses should be specialization compulsory as well.

2. Core Specialization courses (ΠΜ-B), compulsory for each specialization. Students choose at least 4 out of 8 courses of the specialization they want to pursue.

3. Elective Specialization courses (ΠΜ-E), electives for each specialization. May be replaced by any track compulsory courses or by core subjects of another specialization (e.g. an extra project).

4. Free Electives (ΕΛ). Students can accumulate up to 8 ECTS from free courses from a specific list of free courses in the NKUA or from specialization core/electives courses (ΕΥΜ, ΠM) (e.g. an extra project).

In addition, students take 3 courses on General Education and are required to produce a dissertation or follow external internship or a combination of both, which covers two semesters and is equivalent to two compulsory courses of 8 ECTS each.

The Department of Informatics and Telecommunications (DIT) of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA) offers a contemporary Undergraduate Study Program (USP) based on programs proposed by the top international scientific organizations, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the IEEE Computer Society (CS) for computing, enriched with modern subjects on Telecommunications. In addition, it offers courses for competence of teaching and education.

The USP coverage of the main areas in Information Technology and Telecommunications in conjunction with the high scientific quality of the Department (in the world top 100 for the years 2010-2013) provides graduates of the Department the possibility to create personalized profiles according to their scientific interests, abilities and skills. In addition to the scientific culture, the USP cultivates an engineering perspective through specialized tasks and laboratories. The USP also includes a dissertation and/or internships outside the University.

The competences of the Department's graduates satisfy the requirements of the full range of professional employment in industry, businesses and organizations, primary/secondary education teaching, as well as, basic and applied research.
The USP aims at cross-cutting knowledge of all main areas in Informatics and Telecommunications, but also aims at specialization, offering compulsory, core and electives subjects of six specializations, organized in two tracks, to which the Department has a very high level of research excellence.

In order to obtain a degree in Informatics and Telecommunications, a student must enroll, attend and successfully complete courses accumulating at least 240 ECTS as follows:

• 18 compulsory courses (124 ECTS)
• 4 track compulsory courses (24 ECTS)
• 1 track project (8 ECTS)
• 4 core specialization courses (24 ECTS)
• 3 general education (6 ECTS)
• A Thesis/Internship or a combination of both, which is annual and is equivalent to two compulsory courses (16 ECTS)
• Subjects from the following
  • 4 to 6 core or elective specialization courses (24 ECTS) (specialization requirements)
  • 3 optional laboratory (6 ECTS) or any other course
  • 2 free electives courses (8 ECTS) or any other course