AKTO Art & Design College

The City of Athens municipality selected Manolis Fiorakis' installation, among several fine art suggestions, to decorate Syntagma square. Manolis, a third year, AKTO Interior Architecture student, presented his "Stylish Christmas Tree - Snow Flake" project, using wood, an eco-friendly and reusable material, as well as typical Festive Red and White Colours.

He was inspired by the unique design of the snow flake, as well as the 2D wooden Christmas decorative toys.

AKTO hosted the "green" design labs, as part of its well-known collaboration with ECOWEEK, from the 12th to the 18th of December, at 3 Kranaou Street.

Some of the most popular "eco-orientated" architects, designers, landscape engineers, young professionals and postgraduate students attended the seminars and workshops in order to familiarize themselves with new "green" concepts and designs.

With the start of the 2011-2012 academic year, AKTO will greet its Thessaloniki students in a new, 3,000 square metre campus, featuring a 120 sq. m. library with internet stations, spacious art classrooms and lecture rooms, internet and multimedia rooms, computer labs and workshops.

See images of the new campus

In May 2011 AKTO became a full member of Cumulus, the International Association of Universities and Colleges of Art, Design & Media. The Association represents 176 institutions with an enrolment of more than 200,000 students across 43 countries, and comprises some of the most prestigious universities in the world, including Parsons, the New School for Design, and the Royal College of Art.

AKTO is the only non-state Greek institution to hold this distinction.

Cumulus represents higher education in art, design and media, promotes innovation and helps the exchange of ideas and trends that govern design today.

AKTO celebrated the official opening of its new urban campus, on May 18 2011. AKTO was honoured by the presence of the Dean of Middlesex University Professor Michael Driscoll, British Ambassador Dr David Landsman and prominent personalities from the fields of education, the arts and media, as well as representatives of the political and business worlds.

AKTO BA in Fashion Design student Stella Kampanou won first prize in this year's Triumph Inspiration Award contest, with her creation titled, Free Spirit. Stella went on to represent Greece at the Berlin finals on July 6. This year's award was dedicated to the theme "125 years of celebrating women". Each year Triumph invites young designers to be inspired by a new theme and create a collection of underwear, which celebrates women or perhaps one particular woman.

Four hundred and eighty four AKTO graduates collected their Diplomas of Higher Education, Bachelor of Arts certificates and Master of Arts certificates from Middlesex University at the 19th annual graduation ceremony for AKTO students in Athens.

«AKTO is an institution with an excellent reputation, earned by working to the highest possible standards from the day it started," said Middlesex University Deputy Vice-Chancellor Dr. Terry Butland, who awarded the degrees. "The standard of our degrees, awarded here at AKTO, are equivalent in every respect to those obtained by students at Middlesex University in London."

Middlesex University is the second-largest public university in the UK, with 36,500 students in London and all over the world.

AKTO offers its 2,000 students a choice of ten degree courses in Art and Design resulting in BA or MA degrees from Middlesex University. They cover the core design disciplines of Graphic Design, Product Design, Interior Architecture, Fashion Design, Fine Arts & Technology, Sketch-Comic-Cartoon, 3D Animation & Multimedia Productions and Photography. A new BA course in Marketing & Advertising has just been launched this year. These courses make AKTO the most comprehensive design-oriented educational environment in Greece.

The collaboration between AKTO and Middlesex University began in 1991, making this the oldest collaboration between a Greek tertiary education institution and a UK university. AKTO students are automatically enrolled as Middlesex University students as well.

"This arrangement is independently assessed by the British Quality Assurance Agency in the United Kingdom, which has given Middlesex University the highest possible rating for its teaching and degree programmes, and for its national and international partnerships, including this one at AKTO," said Dr, Butland.

UK universities received more than 600,000 applications from Britain and the EU this year, a record number. The second-highest area of interest after Law was Design. "More people than ever are starting university this autumn" said David Willetts, UK universities minister.