The Department of History of the Ionian University has been in operation since the academic year 1985-1986. It is the only department solely dedicated to history in any Greek university, and its total active student population is around five hundred. Thanks to its considerable and age-old cultural heritage Corfu is an advantageous place for the Ionian University and the Department of History in particular. Indeed, Corfu takes pride in its literary, historical, musical and political theoretical production and general learned tradition. It is the locus of the first university on Greek soil, the Ionian Academy (1824-1864), which precedes the National Capodistrian University of Athens.