Department of Special Education

The Department of Special Education (SED) was founded in 1993 and started its operation in September 1998. It is part of the School of Humanities of the University of Thessaly and is located in the city of Volos, Greece.

SED is the only public university department in Greece fully specialized in research and practice in Special Education.

SED’s main mission is to prepare special teachers for pre-school and primary education settings, as well as advance research and development in special education. SED’s program of studies offers specialization in the education of the following categories of people with special needs: learning disabilities, hearing impairment and deafness, visual impairment, intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorders.

The professional rights of SED graduates have been registered by Law 3699/2008 and published (gov. gazette issue 199/2-10-2008) and in article 19, paragraph 1 the newly founded role of special teachers is specified as a separate sector in Primary Education as follows: Sector PE61 (Preschool Special Educational Settings) and Sector PE71 (Primary Special Educational Settings).

The Department implements two Postgraduate Studies Programmes: a) MSc "Science of education: Special Education" and b) MSc "Counseling Psychology & Counseling in Special - General Education & Health". Also, SED participates in the Postgraduate Programs of Studies: a) “Special Education and Training of People with Oral and Written Language Problems” (joint Masters distance learning program with the Hellenic Open University). More than 50 Doctoral theses in various topics in Special Education as well as Post-doctoral theses and research are also developed in SED.

The Department has a robust infrastructure as well as highly experienced human resources of expertise to assure achievement of its aims and mission. Although relatively young among University Departments, SED is already established as a major factor in academic developments on a national and international level in the area of Special Education.