Greece's newest and southernmost university is set begin life in the form of a School of Technology consisting of two departments (one of Computer Science and Technology, the other of Telecommunications Science and Technology), each of which is scheduled to receive sixty students this coming September.

The School will be located in the Peloponnesian town of Tripoli, the capital of Arcadia prefecture. Plans for the new university ultimately foresee the creation of a total of six schools comprising three departments each, for the purposes of which 13,260 Euro have been set aside from E.U. operational funds. It will be the twentieth university in the country, and the second in the Peloponnese, after the University of Patras founded in 1966.

While the new university will be headquartered in Tripoli, the Ministry of Education has announced that the additional departments to be created will be distributed among the prefectures of Messinia, Lakonia, Corinthia, and Argolida.

Fighting for the 'prize'
As the presence of an institute of higher learning is seen as a boon at the economy and development of any town fortunate enough to host it, several towns in these prefectures are at present jostling for position in an often gloves-off battle for the trophy a battle which one newspaper has jokingly likened to a new "Peloponnesian War".

Both the prefectures of Messinia and Argolis, for example, are vying to host a future department of Archaeology and History, the prefect of the former putting forward Argolis' abundance of archaeological sites as an argument in its favour, and the Messinians citing their capital city Kalamata's well-developed infrastructure. For their part, citizens of Corinthia have formed the group Initiative for a University in Corinthia in their effort to have a school of the new university established in their prefecture as well.