Since 2014, the University has been facing severe economic hardship due to austerity policies resulting in minimal state funding.

[39] An external evaluation of all academic departments in Greek universities was conducted by the Hellenic Quality Assurance and Accreditation Agency (HQA) in 2012-2015.

Students are awarded degrees which fully comply with the ECTS standard, which enables them to undertake international study programmes.

[5]: 17 In 2007 a postgraduate programme in Classical Homeopathy (Holistic Alternative Therapeutic Systems) was established in the university of the Aegean's unit in Syros, which was discontinued in 2013.

In the following year, the Department of Primary School Education, in Rhodes, and the Postgraduate Course on Environmental Studies began operating.

At the end of the first five years of operation, the University comprised 7 departments and 1 postgraduate course, "however, in 1997 a remarkable development was initiated by exploiting available [european] funding opportunities".

[49][50] The foundations of the University of the Aegean date back to October 1918, when Greece had expanded its geographic borders to the wider Smyrna area after World War I.

[53] The city of Smyrna in Asia Minor was one of the cultural centres of the Ionian civilisation closely associated with Ancient Greek philosophy.

Consequently, the greek government decided to materialize Carathéodory's vision and establish the Ionian University, based in Smyrna (today's city of İzmir, Turkey) on 1 December 1920.

During the fall semester of 2012 a number of administrative employees were laid off as a result of downsizing policy in the public sector.

[60] The University of Aegean library was founded in 1984 and it has ever since experienced modernization and ample development of its IT infrastructure, partly financed by EU programmes.