There are between 40 and 45 thousand Greeks residing permanently in the UK. The presence of Greek students in tertiary education in the UK is quite significant, with some 20 Greek cultural, philanthropic and professional organizations active. There are seven chairs of Greek and Byzantine studies at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, East Anglia, Royal Holloway, Birmingham, King’s College and the London School of Economics, as well as two Greek Studies Centers at the universities of Bristol and Reading.
Recently founded, the Hellenic Academics Association of Great Britain (HAA-GB) is a voluntary, non-profit professional organization connecting the more than 2,200 academics of Greek descent working at British academic institutions with each other, their colleagues in Greece, students and friends of Greece all over the world.
The inaugural event of the Association was held, on March 3, 2016, under the auspices of the Embassy of the Hellenic Republic in the UK. Deputy Foreign Minister responsible for the Greek Diaspora, Yiannis Amanatidis, along with his Excellency the Ambassador of Greece to Great Britain, Konstantinos Bikas, inaugurated the Association in its first and highly successful event, attended by over 150 academics from Universities across the UK.
The Association aims to advance the highest principles of the university teaching profession for the benefit of world Hellenism and culture and cooperate with academic, state and private, national and international institutions in Greece, Great Britain and around the world for this purpose. It aspires to become a forum for the free exchange of ideas, offering students of Greet descent information and assistance, helping them adjust to new academic environments, and most importantly providing them with a vehicle to get together in an organized manner. Within this framework, the Association will organize academic, social and promotional events and will participate in local, national and international activities assisting in any way Greece’s economy, academic advancement and the promotion of its cultural heritage.
To this end, the Association invites all higher education Greek professors in Great Britain, and elsewhere, to join in a quest to connect and promote fellowship and social interaction among each other. Colleagues and students based in Greece, as well as colleagues of other nationalities with a deep-rooted interest in Greek society and culture are also invited. The Association considers as its most valuable partners all Greek Educational, Scientific, Student, Cultural, Religious Greek Orthodox institutions, and social organizations in Great Britain and abroad, as well as Greek Embassies, the Greek Ministries of Education and Foreign Affairs, and all those willing to offer their services for the advancement of its cause.
Read more: Greek News Agenda/ Modern Greek Studies: New Journal Launched; Rethinking Greece/Dimitris Tziovas on the Greek crisis & the reinvention of Modern Greek Studies; Rethinking Greece/Roderick Beaton on the study of Greece and modern Greek achievements; Society for Modern Greek Studies
TAGS: EDUCATION | FESTIVALS | GREEK LANGUAGE
