The course aims at offering to students the knowledge and learning experience, which will allow them to understand the basic mechanisms and process of rural development, as well as the different approaches behind rural development policies.
Students should learn how the process of economic development affects agriculture and the rural space in general. The transformation of rural space, the development of non-agricultural activities, the relationship of rural economy with the rest, the new technologies and international transactions, are subjects for which the students should have and adequate level of knowledge at the end of the course. They should be able also to use this knowledge and their critical thinking to understand and analyze the changes occurring in rural areas, in different cases. They should have a good understanding of rural policies and their logic, which will enable them to evaluate these policies and their instruments as well. Students should know also how statistical and other quantitative methods, taught at their academic program, can help them to use available data and derive conclusions.
It is the only Greek University Department with the objective of training agroeconomists able to meet the demands of this new period in Greek agriculture which was inaugurated with the entry of Greece into the E.U.
