Georgetown University aims to establish a campus in Athens, Greece, featuring graduate programs targeted toward Greek energy executives, a university dean confirmed to The Hoya March 11.
The university filed an application before the Feb. 28 deadline to create a university legal entity with the Greek Ministry of Education and plans to begin student enrollment in October. The campus will house two professional master’s programs: an Executive Master’s in Leadership, offered by the McDonough School of Business (MSB), and a Master of Science in Environment and Sustainability Management, which is a collaboration between the MSB and the Earth Commons — a university institute for the environment and sustainability.
Peter Marra, Earth Commons dean, said the institute has engaged in work in Greece for the past four years, and the new programs are an extension of an existing hub in the country.
“In the Earth Commons we are building out several key international sites for education, research and service activities for our faculty and students,” Marra wrote to The Hoya. “We have been doing this in Greece (ECo-Greece) for about 4 years. It’s been very successful.”
The Earth Commons hub in Greece provides two master’s courses in environmental studies focusing on marine ecosystem health and adaptation to climate change.
Alberto Bourlas (GSB ’95), president of the GU Alumni Club of Greece, said the launch of the two new programs — in partnership with the Public Power Corporation (PPC) group, a Greek energy company — is partly a result of recent government regulatory modifications that govern foreign academic programs allowed in the country.
“Georgetown is launching programs in Greece, offering a master’s in leadership and an executive program in leadership and environmental sciences in collaboration with the Greek energy company PPC, after regulatory changes by the Greek minister and prime minister, which allow private foreign universities to operate in Greece,” Bourlas told The Hoya.
Marra said Georgetown decided to partner with PPC, the leading energy company in Greece, after the group inquired about training their own employees with business and environmental studies degrees.
“PPC was aware of our presence in Greece and the rich alum network there and reached out to us and McDonough to explore the possibilities of executive MS degrees for their employees,” Marra wrote.
Bourlas said the programs are geared toward educating professionals in Greece who cannot move to the United States for education.
“The executive program is mostly aimed towards seasoned executives working in Greece who have a difficult time leaving the country for studies in the U.S., so they can access Georgetown-quality education and degrees locally,” Bourlas said.
Marra said the MSB partnership is meant to train students in leading climate-conscious energy transitions.
“For the joint degree we are providing with MSB, an MS in environment and sustainability management (MS-ESM), we’re excited to train people in the energy sector, information on environmental science and sustainability approaches,” Marra wrote. “This is part of the energy transition — training the energy practitioners.”
Ali Arab, an Earth Commons professor, said Greece’s environment and geography make it ideal for research.
“Greece’s biodiversity and climate issues makes it an interesting spot,” Arab told The Hoya. “Also, in a way, it’s between three different continents — you get Europe, Asia and Africa, the whole Mediterranean area — so Greece has a good network of academia and research institutions, which makes it a good choice.”
Bryan Alexander, another Earth Commons professor, said Greece’s economy, which faced a debt crisis between 2009 and 2019, could present academic opportunities for other disciplines.
“Also, to take a look at how a very stressed economy — Greece has been in financially rough shape for about twenty years — how it manages to finance this,” Alexander told The Hoya. “So it would be interesting for people in economics, business, but also sociology.”
Arab highlighted the academic potential of the new campus, saying that it can expand research possibilities.
“It’s important and useful for Earth Commons and the Georgetown community in general because it provides an opportunity for students to potentially do field research in that area,” Arab said. “The overall academic exchange between communities would be really important and useful.”