MISSION
The mission of the Programme is to offer and disseminate high quality education and research in the field of Food & Agribusiness and prepare high quality executives for positions of responsibility in the private and public sectors. Our graduates will be able to make those decisions that are required in a complex and competitive environment either as business executives or as entrepreneurs.
Agri-food is one of the most important sectors in every economy. Production, transport and distribution, as well as the consumption of agricultural products and foodstuffs, are the essential parts of this value chain, which can be described as “from farm to fork “.
The main comparative advantage of the MBA Food & Agribusiness Programme is that it focuses mainly on the business aspects of the food and agriculture sector. This offers students the opportunity to acquire specialised knowledge and skills in the fields of business administration, industrial economics, consumer behaviour and food technology, which will lead them to a successful professional path to senior management.
THE HISTORY OF THE MBA
The Postgraduate Programme “Agribusiness Management” was established in 1997 under the EPEAEK Programme (Operational Programme for Education and Initial Vocational Training) with the collaboration of the Departments of ‘’Agricultural Economics and Rural Development’’ and ‘’Food Science and Nutrition’’ of the Agricultural University of Athens. It initially operated as a full-time Programme in the 1998-99 academic year.
Until 2004 it was financed by the European Union through the Operational Programme for Education and Initial Vocational Training (EPEAEK). As from 2004, the Programme has been funded by tuition fees and business sponsorship.
In 2013, the Part Time MBA Programme was created to meet the needs of prospective working students.
Since its establishment until 2001, Professor Panagiotis Patsis was the Director of the Programme. For the period 2001-2012 Director was Professor Peter Soldatos, while in the period 2012-16 Dr Stelios Rozakis. All of them, are research and teaching staff members of the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development.
THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY
The Agricultural University of Athens is the third oldest University in Greece, after the National Kapodistrian University of Athens and the National Technical University of Athens.
It was founded in 1920 as an independent Higher Education Institution comprising two Departments under the name of Agricultural School of Athens (AGSA), which later evolved into the Agricultural University of Athens (AUA) consisting of seven independent Academic Departments. Today, the Agricultural University of Athens comprises two Schools and six academic Departments.