University of Alcalá
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| University of Alcalá | |
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| Universidad de Alcalá | |
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| Established: | Historical University 1499 Official Modern University1977 |
| Type: | public |
| Endowment: | 140 million EUR |
| Rector: | Dr. Virgilio Zapatero Gomez |
| Students: | 22,836 |
| Location: | Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain |
| Campus: | Urban and Outskirts |
| Faculty: | 1,616 |
| Website: | www.uah.es |
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The University of Alcalá (Spanish: Universidad de Alcalá) is an institute of higher learning located in the city of Alcalá de Henares, to the east of Madrid in Spain.
[edit] History
The university was founded in 1499 by Francisco Cardinal Jiménez de Cisneros. During the 16th and 17th century, it gained recognition as a center of academic excellence, with students and faculty including Antonio de Nebrija, Juan de la Cruz, Lope de Vega, Balthazar Alvarez, and Francisco de Quevedo. In fact, its success was so great that is now considered to have been a substantial influence on the new universities being formed in the Americas.
The eighteenth century saw great change at the University of Alcalá, including a new academic program chartered by Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos and the awarding of a Doctorate of Philosophy to María Isidra de Guzmán y de la Cerda, making her the first woman in Spain to hold such a title.
In the middle of the nineteenth century, the University relocated to Madrid, where it is now known as Universidad Complutense or Complutense University (ie still taking its name from the Latin name for Alcalá). It was not until 1977, when Spain was a nascent democracy, that the people of Alcalá reopened a university in the old buildings and gave it the same name as the one which had moved out more than a century earlier. The heritage of the university was an important factor in Alcalá being designated a World Heritage Site.
[edit] The university today
Currently, the university is housed in both urban buildings in downtown Alcalá and dedicated campuses in Alcalá and nearby Guadalajara. It has around 20,000 students, which means the city of Alcalá de Henares is strongly influenced by the University. It presents the highly prestigious Cervantes Prize annually, recognizing achievement in Spanish-language literature. It offers programs of study in biology, economics and business, environmental sciences, law, Spanish and English philology, history, the humanities, medicine, chemistry, architecture, telecommunications, and many other fields. The strongest programs are in engineering, economics and business, although the humanities programs are also notable. Also, because it is the hometown of Cervantes, and due to its geographical location, there are a number of programs for teaching Spanish as a foreign language.
[edit] External links
- University of Alcalá official site (Spanish)
- University of Alcalá International Student Home Page (English)
- University of Alcalá is at coordinates Coordinates: ,
