The education system in Greece is based on semesters. The academic year starts in 1st September every year and ends in 31st August the next year. It is separated in two semesters. The first (autumn) semester begins in the end of September and ends in the mid February. Classes for the second (spring) semester, resume in the mid February and last until the end of June. The exact dates are set by the Senate of the University of Patras. The programme of undergraduate studies is four years long (8 semesters) and includes lectures, laboratory training and Degree Thesis. It is designed to cover the full breadth of materials science.
The courses offered are grouped in semesters (autumn and spring semesters). The way these courses appear in the Course Summary Table indicates the sequence of courses a student should follow according to prerequisite knowledge.
The Department’s curriculum consists of a core of basic courses (compulsory courses), which are taken by all the students and of courses (elective courses) that can be chosen by the students according to their special interests. Elective courses appear in the programme of studies from the fifth semester. There is no student quota for the elective courses, although in some cases there is a minimum requirement of three registered students for the course to be taught.
The assessment consists of a final exam at the end of the semester and in some cases mid term exams or other forms of assessment are implemented during the semester. In the laboratories, students are regularly examined, usually orally on theory and practice accompanying each experiment. Students are required to present a written account of their results at the end of each experiment. All these are taken into account in the final grade of the course associated with the particular laboratory, together with the results of the final written examination on the course.
Courses are offered in the Greek language. Lecturers normally use Greek textbooks. When necessary, English textbooks can be proposed by the lecturer and can be loaned by the Departmental or the central library.
The grading system is on a 0-10 scale. The minimum passing grade is 5. When a course is accompanying by laboratory training, successful completion of all the experiments is also required. The final grade is determined according to factors, which vary from laboratory to laboratory, based on the exam grade as well as on laboratory performance. Exams are offered to the students at the end of each semester. Students who fail in these exams can take an additional exam before the beginning of the autumn semester of each year.
During the final year of studies, students are optionally assigned a research project under the supervision of a member of the academic staff and are required to write a Degree Thesis on it. The duration of the Degree Thesis project is at least two semesters. The Thesis is successfully completed after been public presented and been graded by the supervisor and a panel of three members assigned by the Academic Board of the Department.
A student is considered to have completed his/her studies in the Department when he/she has passed successfully courses corresponding to a minimum of 240 ECTS, according to the current EU and National Legislation.
The number of Greek credits that are assigned to each course is dictated by a regulation of the Greek Law for Higher Education (1268/82) which states that one Educational Unit corresponds to 1 hr lecture per week per semester whereas for the rest of educational work (e.g. seminars and laboratories) one credit corresponds to 1-3 hr per week per semester. The ECTS system is based on 30 credits for each semester.
After graduation a student can follow a graduate programme of studies leading to a Master of Science Degree and a Doctorate Degree.
Further details are found in the STUDENT GUIDE 2015-2016 (pdf)