As its first name, the Royal School of Arts, suggests, it had little to do with polytechics in the beginning. Still, with the country's economic upswing, the institution grew increasingly concerned with generating engineering diplomas, and remained the country's prime academic institution up until the 1950s when the demand for engineers was slightly subdued and several polytechnical universities were established outside the capital.

The university campus is set in the central part of the city, on Patission Avenue, and the Polytechnic also has a 1980s campus in the suburban area, known as Zografou Campus. Among the university's donors are Nikolaos Stournaris, Michail Tositsas and Georgios Averof.