The University of Macedonia is the second and “youngest” University of the city of Thessaloniki and it specializes in economic and social sciences. It was founded by the Greek State under the Presidential Decree 147/10-4-1990. In the past it was widely known as Graduate School of Industrial Studies of Thessaloniki which was founded in 1948 and started its first operation during the academic year 1957-1958. In the academic year 2016-2017 the University of Macedonia completed 60 years of operation as an Institution of Higher Education in Greece.