The Department of History and Archaeology of the University of Crete is located in Rethymno, Crete. Being a constituent part of the Faculty of Letters, it has been founded in 1973 and normally functioning since September 1977.
The department has 350 undergraduate and 100 postgraduate students . At the undergratuate level the ratio of teachers to students is 1:8. The faculty members is mainly composed of 31 motivated and decicated scolars. Most of them are members of a large range of Interuniversity Collaboration Programs (Erasmus and Lingua). Several members of the faculty members are participating in Humanities' Research Projects carried out in the Institut of Mediterranean Studies (I.M.S.), an independent Section of the F.O.R.T.H. which is one of the most efficient research Institutes in Greece. and an active participant to some of the most important European Research Programs (Esprit, COMMET, Stride, etc.).
The faculty members of the department regularly place orders for new books through the Library of the University, which contains a rich collection of books periodicals and microfilms in all subjects served by the Department. Students and faculty have at their disposition several computers, a microfilm reader-printer, a photocopying machine, several slide projectors an an over-head projector.
There is also a building, in the Old Town, Known as �The Building of the Section of Archaeology and Art History�, which houses an archaeological workshop, where students study archaeological findings from Eleutherna, but also many of the post-graduate seminars in different fields as well as the majority of lectures organized by the Department.
The Department is divided into four Sections which are the following:
Students that have succesfully completed 8 semesters of study, receive a diploma in history specialised in one of the following 3 fields: Ancient and Medieval History (A1), Modern and Contemporary History (A2) and Archaeology (B). It has been the first Department of History in Greece to offer to its students the oportunity of coherent and organised programs of Postgraduate Studies in Classical Archaeology, Art History, Modern and Contemporary History and Turkish Studies.
The Section of Archaeology contacts excavation on several sites of the island, the most important being that of Eleftherna. All students of the Section (T.A.I.T.) may participate to this excavations during their summer vacations. One of the main goal of this activity is to help students acquire some necessary experience in excavating. The international character of the site should also be mentioned as scholars and students from the universities of Saarlandes, Paris I and Napoli take part in the excavations every year.
All Sections organise visits to important sites and important archival collections, both in Greece and abroad, in order to give first hand Knowledge of the historical and archaeological material.
