The onset of our School was the Department of Mining and Metallurgical Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) that was founded by government decree on February 27th, 1946. According to this decree, the School of Chemical Engineering was subdivided into three Departments: (a) the Department of Chemical Engineering, (b) the Department of Mining Engineering, and (c) the Department of Metallurgical Engineering. The operation of the last two departments was thus started during the academic year 1945-46.
Before the foundation of the Departments of Mining Engineering and Metallurgical Engineering, a number of courses belonging to these disciplines were taught in other departments of NTUA. In particular, since 1878 (when NTUA was called “School of Industrial Arts”) the course “Mineralogy and Geology” was taught in the Department of Civil Engineering, while a little later the course “Iron Metallurgy” was first offered in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. These two courses continued to be offered up to the restructuring that took place in 1914, when the current name was given to NTUA (Ethniko Metsovio Polytechneio), while in 1917 the course “Mining Works” was first offered.
In 1943, the law 935 created the following Chairs: Mining Engineering, Iron Metallurgy, Metallurgy Engineering, and Economic Geology and Applied Geology. However, the actual functioning of the Department starts during the academic year 1945-46, with the 5-year study program in the Department of Mining Engineering and the Department of Metallurgical Engineering. In 1948, three years after the foundation of the two Departments, they are joined together in a single Department under the name “Department of Mining & Metallurgical Engineering”, which was still part of the School of Chemical Engineering of NTUA. Thus, during the 1950, 1951 and 1952 years, graduating students from NTUA were designated as having a diploma either in Mining Engineering or in Metallurgical Engineering but not both.
During the academic year 1975-76, the Department was separated from the School of Chemical Engineering and formed an independent school under the name “School of Mining and Metallurgical Engineering”. Under the government law 1268/82 “On the Structure and Operation of the Highest Educational Institutions” (Framework Law), the nine existing at the time faculty chairs were split according to the new law into the following three departments:
- Department of Mining Engineering
- Department of Metallurgy & Materials Technology
- Department of Geological Sciences
This structure remain the same today, with the graduates being awarded the Diploma of Mining and Metallurical Engineer, after their succesful completion of a 5 year course.