Student review [#21670] for Mechanical Engineering with Aeronautics
at University of Patras

I study Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics here. The faculty is on the most part very good and knowledgeable about their respective subjects. Some of them are of course, not that helpful and offer less-than-average teaching, including but not limited to, subpar notes and slides, books that don’t help whatsoever in studying the subject in question and exams that are confusing, including questions about things that were never covered in class. That kind of professor, however, is overall limited to but a handful of individuals, other colleagues of theirs are perfect in their jobs. They are very helpful when it comes to understanding their courses, they offer plenty of examples and practice problems and are willing to help students in need of clarifications. Lastly, when it comes to professors there is a substantial lack of them, leading to labs being understaffed and existing faculty stretched out very thinly.

When it comes to University buildings, hardware and lab equipment the situation changes dramatically, There are shortages in almost everything, lab equipment is mostly ancient and deteriorating, the available buildings are also old and worn out. There are computers available for use, but those of my department at least are old and extremely slow, for the most part.

The University of Patras offers 3 meals per day, either for free with a card (available to lower income students) or at a very low price. It is mostly good with some exceptions, namely the seafood offered.

One of my biggest issues with it, is the almost complete disregard of the Dean for student organizations such as EUROAVIA and others. Other than a very complicated bureaucracy that’s required to legally access our funds through ELKE, the university refuses to give us the necessary workspaces to conduct our activities and research. Organizations are mostly left to fend for themselves and therefore, are placed at a substantial disadvantage when aiming to complete technical projects that require a large amount of knowledge, capital and manufacturing capabilities (like CNC lathes, 3D printers and other such equipment that cannot possibly be accessed through other means by students themselves)