The University of Piraeus was founded in 1938 under the title “School for Industrial Studies”, by the Industrialists and Tradesmen Association. It was renamed several times through the years, until 1989 when finally, was renamed to University of Piraeus. Today the University runs ten departments in four greater fields of study: Economics, Business and International Studies, Maritime and Industrial Studies, Finance and Statistics and Information and Communication Technologies, awarding degrees and doctorates in the corresponding scientific fields. Moreover, University of Piraeus offers a variety of postgraduate programs (MSc and MBA).

The University of Piraeus Research Centre (UPRC) was established in 1983 and it is a research, non-profit organization. UPRC aims at providing the institutional framework which would facilitate and support the research activities that are carried out by Faculty members, in the general fields of economics, management and computing, emphasizing on the study of the Greek economy and society. The UPRC has so far fulfilled more than 1.000 research programs, as well as numerous education programs, conferences and executive seminars funded by the European Union, the General Secretariat of Research and Technology, Ministries, banks, organizations of the civil sector, companies, non-profit and non-governmental organizations.