The original Granada University, La Madraza, was founded by the Moorish Sultan Yusuf I in 1349. The building was later used as the town hall and is still standing today, close to the cathedral. The modern University owes its origins to the initiative of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, grandson of the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella and Ferdinand. In 1531, Pope Clement VII issued a papal bull granting the foundation in Granada of a College of General Studies. This institution had the right to issue degrees such as those already conferred by the universities of Bologna, Paris, Salamanca, Alcalá and other similar colleges. These degrees were initially confined to the areas of Logic, Philosophy, Canon Law, Grammar and Cases of Conscience.The college was housed in a building that was specially designed for the purpose (the Ecclesiastical Curia), just opposite the main entrance to the newly-built cathedral. It remained there until 1767, when the Jesuits were expelled from Spain and the University took their place in St. Paul's College, inheriting their sizeable library, which still forms part of the modern-day University of Granada library stock.
The University of Granada has suffered its ups and downs throughout its more than 450 years' existence, but it has always been the focal point of scholarship and learning in the city, to such an extent that Granada can be considered a true university city, like Oxford and Salamanca, for example, where the university colleges and annexes are spread out around the city. The University's influence is palpable in all walks of life.The university has over 60,000 students - including more than 2,000 foreign visitors -, 3,000 lecturers and an administrative staff of 1,500. During the academic year, all these scholars and students contribute enormously to the hustle and bustle of daily (and nightly) life in the city, which has a resident population of around 250,000 inhabitants. The University itself is usually referred to as one of the 'classical' universities, offering, as it does, a wide range of disciplines and courses that can be studies to both diploma (3 years) and degree (4 or 5 years) level at sixteen Faculties, five University Schools and three Higher Technical Schools:
Before the conquest of Granada the way for the discovery of a new world was emerging, and with it the coming together of American and European cultures, the city had already been Iberian, Roman and later Jewish and Islamic. The capital of the former Nazarí Kingdom, Granada was the last city in the Iberian Peninsula to be ceded by the Muslims, in 1492, an event which resulted in the formation of Spain. The christian conquest did not taint the city´s brilliance as a cultural center, in which the sciences and the arts found the best way in which to develop.
The University of Granada was founded in 1531, by Emperor Charles V, by means of a Bull by Pope Clement VII. In this way, Granada affirmed its status as a University city open to culture, people and beliefs. And so, the institution of Granada came to continue the tradition of the Arab University of Yusuf I (Madraza, XIV century). With 470 years of tradition the University of Granada has been the sole witness of history, from the time in which its influence in the social and cultural surroundings of the city was growing, up to its own development over a period of nearly five centuries, by its own right, into an intellectual and cultural nucleus in the south of Spain.
The University of Granada takes an active part in the European Union's university programmes, both in the mobility of teachers and students as well as research. Programmes are coordinated from the Office of International Relations, and aimed at EU countries and other geographical areas (Latin America, Eastern Europe, North Africa, etc.). By way of bilateral or specific agreements between groups of universities, it has traditionally collaborated with universities from these geographical areas as well as with the USA, Japan, China, Israel, Canada, Australia, Benin, Asian countries from the former USSR, Palestine, Australia, etc., university associations such as the Coimbra Group, the AUIP, ISTEC, ATEI, etc. These are some of the examples of the collaboration initiatives.
Although the three most intense areas of cooperation, as might be expected for a country such as Spain and a University with the tradition of Granada, are the European Union, Latin America and the Magreb, of no lesser importance are the lines of collaboration which exist with the countries mentioned above.
As a result of this cooperation, the University of Granada receives more than 8,000 lecturers, students and university administrators each year from all over the world, who attend Spanish classes, regular courses (around 5% of registration numbers), teach, collaborate with research groups, etc.
Number or degree courses 62
Centres 24 university centres and 4 associated
Degree and diploma students (year 2000) 60,000
Students of Spanish for foreigners 4,000
Doctorate students 2,800
Lecturers 3,220
Administration and Service Staff 1,780
Departments 101
Exhibition halls 4
Computers connected to Internet 6.500
Graduates year 1999-2000 13,900
Budget (year 2000) 41,938,268,767 pts.
Universidad de Granada
Vicerrectorado de Investigación y Relaciones Internacionales
Hospital Real
Cuesta del Hospicio, s/n
18071 Granada
SPAIN
Tel: +34 958 243013 (Int'l Office)
Fax: +34 958 243009 (Int'l Office)
Email: informa@ugr.es
Website: http://www.ugr.es/
