Complutense University of Madrid

For the historic University of Alcalá, or Cisnerian University, its predecessor, see University of Alcalá (historical).

Complutense University of Madrid
Coat of arms of the Complutense University of Madrid «La Docta»
Acronym	UCM
Motto	Libertas Perfundet Omnia Luce
Motto in English	Freedom illuminates all things
Established	1293 Studium generale 1822 Central University
Founder	Ferdinand VII of Spain
Type	Public
Affiliations	Europaeum Compostela Group Mediterra Utrecht Network UNICA IAU
Budget	€528,103,632.77 (2018)
Rector	Joaquín Goyache
Administrator	General Secretariat: Araceli Manjón-Cabeza Olmeda
Civil servants	4,665 (2016)
Academic year	2018–2019
Academic staff	5,825
Administrative staff	3,295 (2018–2019)
Students	71,806 (65,445 in its own centers)
Undergraduates	53,092
Postgraduates	6,488
Doctoral students	5,385
Other students	6,361 (affiliated centers)
Mascot	Swan
Academic colors
Address	Avenida de Séneca, 2 Ciudad Universitaria
Country	Madrid Community of Madrid Spain
Locations	Pozuelo de Alarcón Community of Madrid Spain
Campuses	Moncloa Campus Somosaguas Campus
Website	ucm.es
Twitter	[1]
Facebook	[2]
Instagram	[3]
LinkedIn	[4]

The Complutense University of Madrid (UCM; Universidad Complutense de Madrid), formerly called the University of Madrid, and known informally as «the Complutense», because of its historical relationship with the University of Alcalá, or «la Docta» ("the Learned"), for having been the only Spanish university authorized to grant the doctoral degree from the end of the 19th century until the beginning of the 20th century, is the oldest public university in Madrid, considered one of the most important and prestigious universities in Spain and in the Spanish-speaking world. In addition, it is currently the third-largest in-person university in Europe.

It has two campuses, the Moncloa Campus and the Somosaguas Campus, in addition to the historic building located in the center of Madrid, on the Calle de San Bernardo in the Malasaña neighborhood. It was founded in 1822 by bringing together in a single institution the teaching given at various centers, among them the Reales Estudios de San Isidro and the Royal Museum of Natural Sciences of Madrid, which a few years later would be joined by the University of Alcalá, the College of Surgery of San Carlos and the College of Pharmacy of San Fernando.

Of the eight Spanish winners of a Nobel Prize, seven studied or were professors at the Complutense University. Among them are the Nobel laureates in Medicine Severo Ochoa and Santiago Ramón y Cajal and the Nobel laureates in Literature José Echegaray, Camilo José Cela, Vicente Aleixandre, Jacinto Benavente and Mario Vargas Llosa. Notable figures of Spanish and universal arts, sciences, philosophy and politics have also been students of the Complutense University, such as Antonio Machado, Federico García Lorca, Gregorio Marañón, Manuel Azaña, Miguel de Unamuno and José Ortega y Gasset. The latter two would be the founders of the philosophical current known as the School of Madrid, whose center of dissemination was the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters (today the Faculty of Philosophy) of the Complutense University of Madrid.

King Juan Carlos I also passed through these classrooms, studying Law, Economics and Public Finance and finishing in 1961, when he was still Prince of Spain; his daughter, the Infanta Cristina de Borbón, studied Political Sciences at this university, graduating in 1989.

Internationally, the Complutense University maintains cooperation agreements with some of the most prestigious universities in the world, such as the University of Oxford, Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University, the University of Rome «La Sapienza», Harvard University, the University of Chicago and the University of California, Berkeley. With Harvard University it signed the agreement that allowed the creation of the Real Colegio Complutense at Harvard, whose aim is to promote intellectual and scientific academic exchange.

The Library of the Complutense University of Madrid, with a collection of 2,941,815 volumes, is the largest university library in Spain and the second-largest library in the country after the National Library of Spain.

Symbols

The official symbol of the UCM is expressed in its coat of arms, which conforms to the following description:

«Checky of fifteen pieces, eight Or and seven gules, charged in abyss with a roundel argent, surcharged with a sun Or and with a legend, divided, which in the upper part, in orle, reads LIBERTAS, in the center, in fess, PERFUNDET, and in the lower part, also in orle, OMNIA LUCE, in letters sable; the whole surrounded by a filiere Or, charged in orle with a cord of Saint Francis argent, whose terminal tassels cross at the point and project beyond the shield. As crest, a crown of gold and precious stones. The shield is backed by a swan argent, beaked and membered gules, contourné, which supports it, holding it with its feet; the whole is enclosed in a phylactery argent, with the legend, in letters sable, VNIVERSITAS COMPLVTENSIS MATRITENSIS».

— Statutes of the Complutense University of Madrid. Boletín Oficial de la Comunidad de Madrid no. 71 of March 24, 2017, p. 59

The seal of the UCM reproduces the coat of arms. The standard, which is present at all academic and official acts of the University, consists of a red gules background—Pantone 200—in the center of which the coat of arms is placed.

History

Founding (1822–1823)

The Complutense University of Madrid has its origin in the determination of 19th-century Spanish liberalism to create a university in Madrid, which until then had lacked one, reserved for the most outstanding students and made up of the most distinguished professors, to serve as a model for the rest of the universities of Spain and in which well-prepared professors would be trained who would carry to the provinces the new doctrines and the new teaching methods advocated by liberalism.

By the end of the 18th century the liberal centralist vision was already beginning to prevail, and universities not located in provincial capitals were considered second-rate. In the development of the Constitution of 1812 promulgated by the Cortes of Cádiz, the Commission of Public Instruction drew up a report, known as the Quintana Report and published on September 9, 1813, which envisaged the existence of universities only in some provincial capitals: Barcelona, Burgos, the Canary Islands, Granada, Salamanca, Santiago, Madrid, Seville, Valencia, Valladolid and Zaragoza. This meant moving or closing some of the existing universities, such as those of Alcalá, Cervera, Huesca and Oviedo. The report pointed out the need to create a Central University in Madrid that would act as the reference university for the whole country. The return to absolutism of Ferdinand VII postponed the plans, which were taken up again during the Liberal Triennium of 1820–1823. The General Regulation of Public Instruction of June 29, 1821 provided for the creation of the first university in Madrid, which would be called the Central University:

A central university shall be established in the capital of the kingdom in which studies shall be given with the extent necessary for the complete knowledge of the sciences.

To set up the new university, the plan was to bring together in a single institution the teaching that until then had been given at various centers, among them the Reales Estudios de San Isidro, the Royal Museum of Natural Sciences of Madrid and the University of Alcalá, with these three institutions thus disappearing. With the publication of the Provisional Regulation for the Organization of the Central University of September 20, 1822 and the final approval of King Ferdinand VII two weeks later, on October 3, the new university was legally created. Its official opening took place on November 7 of that same year. The poet Manuel José Quintana, President of the General Directorate of Studies, delivered the inaugural address. In that address, Quintana set out the philosophy of the new university, based on liberalism and the Enlightenment, emphasizing its differences from the traditional Spanish universities:

[...] the University that is now born [...] is not rocked in its cradle by the powerful and valiant hands that founded and endowed among us the same institutions in olden times. The first school of studies known in Castile was owed to that Alfonso who overthrew the Hagarene power at Las Navas de Tolosa, and who for his generous character was called the Noble. If we cast our eyes upon the University of Salamanca, we see it favored in its beginnings and protected in eager rivalry by the great Conqueror of Seville and by the august Legislator of the Partidas. The forever illustrious name of Ferdinand the Catholic serves as laurel to the Schools of Valencia, while those of Alcalá take pride in owing their foundation to that extraordinary man who, first a Religious, then Confessor to a Queen and Courtier, Prelate, and finally Minister and Governor of the State, had all the virtues, united all the talents, and by the capacity of his spirit, by the energy of his character and by his eminent deeds rises equal in fame to the two lofty personages between whom history presents him. Not so our University: simple citizens without name and without power conceived it; simple citizens decreed its existence; simple citizens, finally, bring it about and establish it. But if around this institution there shine neither the majesty, nor the power, nor the renown of victorious and opulent Monarchs, what it lacks in personages is supplied, and with ample interest, by the dignity of the very things in which it recognizes its origin. The Central University is the work of the Nation, born with liberty, the product of the enlightenment and the civilization of the centuries. Before objects so great, before agents so powerful, every height is lowered, every renown is eclipsed; and if the other institutions, proud of the renown of their founders, wish in this respect to rival the present one, they will have to yield, vanquished, when they compare the great distance there is between things and persons, between nations and individuals, between laws and privileges.

In that same speech, Quintana defended the project of the new university as a center of excellence destined to become the national reference for the rest of the universities, and the suitability of Madrid, the capital, as the seat of this institution:

There could be no doubt that the place for an institution of this kind had to be the capital. The various schools scattered in it, and the many and great means of instruction accumulated here, especially in the natural sciences, had already covered more than half the way toward realizing the idea. Moreover, the emulation, the movement and the continuous agitation that always reign near the supreme Power and the great governmental establishments call to the capital all outstanding minds, which, stirred by a thousand different stimuli, develop and advance with greater force and energy. Here, then, was where this center of enlightenment, this model of instruction, had to be located, not only most useful for its influence on individuals thirsty and ambitious for knowledge, but also necessary for the preservation and perfection of good teaching in the rest of the schools. For here they would always have a repository of excellent doctrine to turn to: here, following the example of its eminent professors, men skilled in the art of teaching would be formed: here principles would be analyzed, methods would be improved, good taste would be refined.

Closure and reopening (1823–1836)

After the invasion of Spain by the Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis in April 1823, which would put an end to the Liberal Triennium and begin the second restoration of absolutism known historiographically as the Ominous Decade, the newly created Central University was closed, and the University of Alcalá reopened a few months later, in July 1823.

Premises of the Reales Estudios de San Isidro

After the death of Ferdinand VII in 1833, his daughter Isabella II became queen under the regency of Maria Christina. The new regime embraced liberalism, which again gave impetus to the plans to create the University of Madrid. The royal decree of October 8, 1836 again pointed out the need to prepare a report on the advisability of moving the University of Alcalá to Madrid. The University, the City Council, the Cathedral Chapter and the National Militia of Alcalá de Henares tried to prevent the move, arguing that the higher level of prices in Madrid would raise the costs associated with professors' salaries and would limit the opportunities of students with fewer resources. In addition, they considered the capital «a hotbed of extravagance, amusements and corruption of morals». Their complaints had no effect, and three weeks later the royal order of October 29, 1836 of the Ministry of the Interior decreed the reopening of the Central University and the new transfer of the University of Alcalá to Madrid. Since only a few days remained before the start of the 1836–1837 academic year, no solemn inauguration ceremonies like those of the founding in 1822 were held, and only the faculties of Laws and Canons were moved from Alcalá, being grouped in the new Provisional School of Jurisprudence. The transfer of the rest of the faculties was postponed until October 1837.

Thus the Central University reopened in November 1836, after having been closed thirteen years earlier, once again bringing together the teaching of the Reales Estudios de San Isidro, the Royal Museum of Natural Sciences of Madrid and the University of Alcalá. The new University was initially located in the premises of the Reales Estudios de San Isidro and began to operate with the teaching staff and governing bodies coming from the University of Alcalá. A year later, in 1837, it moved to the Convent of the Salesas Nuevas, on the Calle de San Bernardo, while the faculties of Philosophy and Theology of the University of Alcalá were also moved, directly to the new location.

Consolidation (1836–1845)

Former building of the Jesuit Novitiate between 1860 and 1864.

The opening of the Central University in Madrid was well received by the students. In the University's first academic year (1836–1837), enrollment in the first year of Laws was 206 students, a very high figure compared with the number of students who had enrolled in previous years in Alcalá (in the 1834–1835 academic year only nine students had enrolled in the sixth year of Canons).

Between 1840 and 1843 the holdings of the library of the University of Alcalá were moved to Madrid. The premises of the Convent of the Salesas Nuevas soon proved insufficient to house the University's activities. In April 1842, a royal decree approved the remodeling of the old building of the Jesuit Novitiate, located on the same Calle de San Bernardo and used since 1836 as a barracks for military engineers, to adapt it to the needs of the university and turn it into its new seat. That same year the façade was demolished and the works began, while the studies that until then had been taught in Madrid by the Royal College of Pharmacy of San Fernando and the Royal College of Medicine and Surgery of San Carlos were integrated into the Central University, creating the Faculty of Pharmacy and the Faculty of Medicine. Work on the new seat began under the direction of Francisco Javier de Marietegui, then chief architect of Madrid. Marietegui died a year later, and Narciso Pascual Colomer took charge of the work. Classes began in the new building in the 1844–1845 academic year, when the faculties of Law and Philosophy and Letters moved there. Meanwhile, the remodeling works continued. Colomer drew up a new project in the Neoclassical style, which he signed in 1847.

Hegemony (1845–1996)

In 1845 a new General Plan of Studies was approved, known as the Pidal Plan after the then minister Pedro José Pidal, which gave the Central University the privilege of being the only Spanish university authorized to grant the degree of doctor. This privilege earned the University the nickname «la Docta». Few students aspired to the degree of doctor, and maintaining the studies leading to the degree at several universities was considered an unnecessary expense:

In the organization of the faculties, the project attends mainly to what the practice of the professions requires, that is, to the studies necessary for the licentiate. This is what interests the generality of students; to this their efforts are directed, and it is therefore the only thing indispensable in the establishments where those faculties are taught. In a higher sphere are the studies that lead to the upper regions of science; but their acquisition is limited to very few persons who, either because they devote themselves to teaching and need broader knowledge, or because, guided by the thirst for knowledge, they aspire to penetrate its most hidden mysteries. For these studies the new plan reserves the degree of doctor, which, ceasing to be a mere title of pomp, would imply greater knowledge and true superiority in those who manage to obtain it. To extend this degree and the studies it requires to all the Universities would have been an expense that, besides being impossible, was unnecessary. One University suffices for this, and it must be the one in which, with greater means and greater perfection in teaching, all the faculties, all the sciences are brought together to form a great center of enlightenment that will in time equal it to the most celebrated ones of Europe, making it the standard and model of all those of Spain. This University can only exist in the capital of the monarchy.

Rectorate.

The centralist policy of the liberals turned Madrid into the capital of science and culture; faculties, engineering schools, special schools, libraries, museums, archives and academies were created there. This, together with the fact that the doctoral degree could only be obtained at the Central University, gathered in Madrid students from all the Spanish universities. For more than a century, the Central University became the center of the scientific, academic and cultural life of Spain, the institution where the political and intellectual elite of the country was trained. It was «the place where all students wanted to study and all professors wanted to teach».

In 1857 the School of Jurisprudence became the Faculty of Law, while the new Faculty of Sciences was created, grouping into an independent faculty various studies that until then had been taught in the Faculty of Philosophy. The latter was then renamed the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters. In 1868 the Faculty of Theology was closed by the decree of October 21 of minister Ruiz Zorrilla, which abolished the teaching of theology in all Spanish universities. In 1900 the Faculty of Law incorporated new studies and was renamed the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences.

Statue of King Alfonso XIII.

During the 1920s, the university population grew very rapidly: the number of students enrolled in university studies grew at a rate of 7% per year between 1922 and 1925, and 20% per year between 1925 and 1930. This increase was felt especially at the Central University, which in 1930 had more than 30% of the university students in all of Spain. The increase in the number of students made evident the need to build new facilities for the University, since those on Calle de San Bernardo had become too small and obsolete. King Alfonso XIII supported the project from the beginning and ceded land he owned in Moncloa for the construction of a university campus in the style of those existing in the United States. In 1926–1927 the first layout plans were drawn up, and in 1929 construction began. The rapid increase in the university population also led, in 1928, to the end of the Central University's exclusive privilege to grant the doctoral degree, although this capacity was not effectively acquired by any university until 1953, when the right was granted to the universities of Salamanca and Barcelona.

During this period the University became the nucleus of the so-called Silver Age of Spanish culture. Among those who taught in its classrooms were the philosopher José Ortega y Gasset, founder of the philosophical current called the School of Madrid, Manuel García Morente, Luis Jiménez de Asúa, Santiago Ramón y Cajal and Blas Cabrera.

The first building on the Moncloa campus, the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, was completed and inaugurated in 1933. After the outbreak of the Civil War in 1936, the Moncloa campus became a battlefront, causing the destruction of buildings of faculties and institutes located on its grounds, as well as the loss of part of its scientific, artistic and bibliographic heritage, which came in part from the old University of Alcalá. A good part of the teaching staff who until then had taught at the University was also lost, mostly because they went into exile. The University was even temporarily moved to the city of Valencia.

After the war, the campus was rebuilt, although its urban and architectural form was heavily altered, seeking to adapt it to the principles of the Francoist Dictatorship. The dictatorship expelled from the University professors who defended democracy, torturing many, forcing them into exile or even murdering them. This led to an impoverishment of education until the arrival of parliamentary democracy. During the dictatorship there was a multiplication of the centers that made up the University, which went from five faculties in 1939 to sixteen in 1976. Already existing independent schools were incorporated into the University (Veterinary Medicine, Fine Arts in 1978, Commerce and Teacher Training), and new faculties (Political and Economic Sciences) and schools (Sociology, Psychology and Psychotechnics, and the Social School) were created. During the democratic period new faculties were created, going from 16 in 1979 to the current 26.

Downsizing (1996–present)

From the 1960s onward, new universities were created in Madrid to avoid overcrowding in the classrooms of the Central University, which had more than 100,000 students. In 1968 the Autonomous University of Madrid was created; a year later the Somosaguas campus was created to house the bulk of the social sciences faculties and thus distance future politicians and economists from the reactions against the Franco regime that were taking place on the Moncloa campus; and in 1970 the Central University was divided in two: the teaching of experimental sciences, health sciences, social sciences and humanities was grouped in what would henceforth be called the Complutense University of Madrid, while the higher schools of technical studies, as well as others attached to other bodies such as the Army or the Ministry of Industry, were grouped in the Technical University of Madrid. In 1975 some studies were moved to Alcalá, located near Madrid, to relieve overcrowding in the Moncloa classrooms, and on the basis of these studies, in 1977 the University of Alcalá was refounded. Despite everything, the number of students at la Docta continued to increase, multiplying tenfold between 1967 and 1987.

In 1989 the Carlos III University was inaugurated, which succeeded in stabilizing the number of students at la Docta at around 120,000, and in 1996 the Rey Juan Carlos University was founded. The opening of these universities allowed a reduction in the number of students at la Docta from about 120,000 in the first half of the 1990s to around 77,000 in 2012.

Academic information

Organization

The Complutense University of Madrid is made up of 26 faculties, 9 affiliated centers, 39 university institutes, 7 schools of professional specialization, 184 departments, 36 departmental sections, 13 clinics and university hospitals, 18 Research Support Centers (CAI) and Unique Scientific and Technical Infrastructures (ICTS), 38 colegios mayores (halls of residence) and 32 libraries.

Faculties

The Complutense University of Madrid is made up of 26 faculties in the disciplines of arts and humanities, sciences, health sciences, social and legal sciences, and engineering and architecture:

• Arts and humanities: Fine Arts, Philology, Philosophy and Geography and History.
• Sciences: Biological Sciences, Physical Sciences, Geological Sciences, Mathematical Sciences, Chemical Sciences.
• Health sciences: Nursing, Physiotherapy and Podiatry, Pharmacy, Medicine, Dentistry, Optics and Optometry, Psychology and Veterinary Medicine.
• Social and legal sciences: Economics and Business, Documentation Sciences, Information Sciences, Political Science and Sociology, Commerce and Tourism, Law, Education–Teacher Training Center, Statistical Studies and Social Work (in addition to Geography and History).
• Engineering and architecture: Computer Science (in addition to Physical Sciences, Geological Sciences, Mathematical Sciences and Chemical Sciences).

The date of creation of each faculty may vary depending on the criterion chosen: some arose from the division of other faculties, such as the science faculties; others simply changed their name, such as the university schools of Optics, Statistics and Social Work.

Affiliated centers

• Cardenal Cisneros Higher Education Center
• Don Bosco Higher Education Center in Humanities and Educational Sciences
• University Center for Teacher Training (ESCUNI)
• Fomento de Centros de Enseñanza University School of Teacher Training
• Institute of Stock Market Studies (IEB)
• Higher Institute of Law and Economics (ISDE)
• Royal University Center María Cristina of El Escorial

Undergraduate program

In the 2015–2016 academic year the Complutense University of Madrid offers 71 bachelor's degrees and 10 double degrees. The undergraduate program shows a structure diversified by branches of knowledge: 37% of the studies offered correspond to social sciences, business and legal studies, 24% to arts and humanities, and 17% to health sciences. Studies in engineering and natural sciences each account for 11% of the total. The most demanded studies are Medicine, Psychology, Law, Economics, Journalism, and Business Administration and Management.

Undergraduate studies last four years, and each academic year is divided into two four-month terms, the first from September or October to February and the second from February to May or June. Most courses last one term, although some are year-long. Some studies include different tracks so that the student can choose a certain specialization within the general program. Specialization courses are usually concentrated in the third or fourth year.

The language in which classes are taught is generally Spanish. However, the studies in Psychology, Economics, Computer Engineering, and Business Administration and Management can be taken entirely in English.

Language teaching at la Docta is structured mainly within the bachelor's degree in Modern Languages and their Literatures. The program follows a major-minor structure, under which the student studies two languages, choosing one as the main language (which will take up two-thirds of the courses of the program) and another as the secondary one (which will take up the remaining third). The student can choose the major (main language) in German, Arabic, French, Italian, Polish and Russian. The minor (secondary language) is available for the major languages and for Spanish, English and Portuguese. For in-depth study of the English, Spanish and Arabic languages there are specific bachelor's degrees in English Studies; Spanish: Language and Literature; and Semitic and Islamic Studies. The latter also includes Hebrew. Latin and Ancient Greek also have a specific bachelor's degree, Classical Philology, which includes both languages but allows specialization in one of them.

In health sciences, la Docta has specific bachelor's degrees for different specializations: nursing, pharmacy, physiotherapy, speech therapy, medicine, human nutrition and dietetics, dentistry, optics and optometry, podiatry, psychology, occupational therapy and veterinary medicine.

In social sciences it offers degrees in economics, political science, sociology, anthropology...

Business studies include various bachelor's degrees such as Finance, Banking and Insurance; Business Administration and Management; Commerce; Advertising and Public Relations; Tourism; etc.

Graduate program

Master's

In the 2015–2016 academic year it offers 169 master's degrees. Of the degrees in the master's program, 43% are in social and legal sciences, 22% in arts and humanities, 18% in natural sciences, 14% in health sciences and 4% in engineering. The length of the studies differs among programs, with master's degrees lasting one year, one and a half years and two years. The structure of the courses can also vary within each academic year; in some studies the year is divided into two semesters and in others into three trimesters. The language in which classes are taught in most studies is Spanish, although some are taught in English.

Doctorate

In the 2015–2016 academic year, 58 doctoral degrees are offered. The doctoral program shows a structure by branches of knowledge similar to that of the master's degrees, although with a slightly smaller weight of social sciences and humanities and a greater weight of natural and health sciences. Of the studies, 28% are in social and legal sciences, another 26% correspond to arts and humanities, 22% to natural sciences, 19% to health sciences and 5% to engineering, the latter being the branch of knowledge with the smallest weight in the university's degrees as a whole. As in the master's studies, the language of instruction is Spanish, with the possibility of taking some studies in English.

Continuing education

In addition to official undergraduate and graduate degrees, the Complutense University of Madrid is also firmly committed to lifelong continuing education, organized through its own courses of varying length and hourly intensity.

It has an open, flexible and up-to-date range of courses designed to address different needs: professional retraining, acquisition of new skills or knowledge, certification of competencies, or simply to acquire greater training in some specific field not covered in the official curricula.

Two types of courses are distinguished:

1- Those that require a prior university degree (formerly Own Degrees): own master's degree, Specialization Diploma, Expert

2- Those that do not require it: Continuing Education Diploma and Certificate.

Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, venue of the university's summer courses

Complutense Latin American School

It has an academic relationship with the University of Guadalajara (Jalisco, Mexico) for holding graduate courses thanks to the creation of the Complutense Latin American School, with its most recent edition to date held in Guadalajara, Jalisco, from October 16 to 27, 2017, with a program in this edition of 10 multidisciplinary courses of great academic and international interest, notably the course Toward healthy aging, in which the Master's in Gerontology is advancing by leaps and bounds in research and clinical work between Mexico and Spain.

Complutense African School

In July 2020, the Governing Board of the Complutense University of Madrid approved the «creation of the Complutense African School, ECA, which in its first edition will take place in Equatorial Guinea». It is a project that will expand and consolidate academic collaboration with universities in Africa, also strengthening international university cooperation, following the model of the Complutense Latin American School.

Summer courses

In the last weeks of June and during the month of July, the Complutense University of Madrid offers summer courses in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, 50 kilometers from Madrid. The courses generally last five days, although there are also courses of only two or three days. The program is general in nature, including courses on different branches of knowledge. These take the form of lectures and round tables open to the participation of attendees, who receive a diploma at the end of the course. In addition to the courses, the program includes artistic activities such as theatrical performances, concerts and film series.

The number of attendees at each edition remains around 4,000. Most are university students in the third or fourth year of undergraduate studies, but there is also significant representation of graduates and working professionals. Approximately one-third of the students receive a scholarship that covers accommodation and board expenses.

Admission

Undergraduate program

As a general requirement, access to undergraduate studies requires a minimum score of 5 out of 14 in the University Entrance Examinations. Depending on the relationship between demand and places offered, this minimum score varies among the different programs. The studies with the most demanding admission criteria are Biochemistry, Nursing, Physiotherapy, Medicine, Dentistry, Veterinary Medicine, Criminology and International Relations; in all of them the minimum entrance score in the 2012–2013 academic year was higher than 10. In the 2012–2013 academic year, 18,365 of the 23,952 students who applied for admission joined as new students, which represents an admission rate of 76.7%.

Graduate program

Admission to graduate studies is carried out in a decentralized manner. Students must apply for admission directly to the department in charge of the program in which they wish to enroll. Admission criteria are set by the corresponding departments and vary among programs. Selection processes usually include a minimum grade point average in undergraduate studies, as well as language skills, personal interviews and specific entrance tests.

Publications

Main article: Publications Service (Complutense University of Madrid)

The university, through its Publications Service, publishes books and 77 scientific journals in various areas of knowledge. Until the summer of 2013 it had its own publishing house, Editorial Complutense, which had a catalog of some 500 monographs devoted to various subjects. Among the authors who have published their works with Editorial Complutense are Amartya Sen, Julio Aróstegui, Francisco Bustelo, George Lakoff and Eduardo Galeano. In July 2013 the publishing house was closed due to financial problems.

Collaborations

Internationally, the Complutense University maintains cooperation agreements with some of the most prestigious universities in the world, such as the University of Oxford, Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University, the University of Rome «La Sapienza» and Harvard University.

The Real Colegio Complutense at Harvard is an institution created in 1990 through the intercession of King Juan Carlos I, who secured the signing of the only institutional agreement of this kind that Harvard University has with the Complutense University of Madrid, hence the word "Real" (Royal) in the name of this institution. The Real Colegio allows Spanish students to join North American research projects.

Together with Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University it founded the Miguel Servet College of Higher European Studies, based in Paris, where the Diploma of Legal and Economic Studies of the European Union is taught, a multidisciplinary graduate program lasting five and a half months (between the months of January and June) taught in French, for which graduates obtain a degree from each of the two universities.

Through the Madrid Science Park the university collaborates with other public research institutions such as the CSIC, Ciemat and the Carlos III Health Institute, as well as with private companies. In 2012 the Madrid Science Park had 154 associated companies, devoted mainly to chemistry (41% of the companies) and computing and telecommunications (38%).

In 2020 the School of Government of the Complutense University began collaborating with Sales Business School, offering an innovative Master's in Sales to adapt to a new professional scenario.

University rankings

University rankings
National
ARWU	1-4
El Mundo	1
CSIC	1
4ICU	1
QS	4
RIUPE	2
Scimago	3
World
ARWU	201-300
CSIC	94
4ICU	77
QS	216
Scimago	175

National rankings

The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) places it between 4th and 9th, and the QS World University Ranking gives it 4th place nationally. The national rankings compiled annually by the newspaper El Mundo and by 4International Colleges & Universities consider it the best Spanish university. The Ranking Mundial de Universidades en la Web (Webometrics) of the CSIC gives la Docta second place in the Spanish ranking. The 2012 Research Ranking of Spanish Public Universities places it in second position for scientific output. The 2016 Scimago Institutions Ranking places it in fourth position in the national ranking.

World rankings

The 2016 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) places it between 301st and 400th worldwide, below the best universities of the Spanish-speaking world such as the National Autonomous University of Mexico (151–200) and the University of Buenos Aires (151–200). The QS World University Ranking places it 239th, also below other Spanish-speaking universities such as the University of Buenos Aires (85), the National Autonomous University of Mexico (128), the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (147), the University of Chile (200) and the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (206). The Ranking Mundial de Universidades en la Web, compiled by the CSIC in Spain, gives la Docta 151st place in the world ranking. The Scimago Institutions Ranking places it 290th.

Facilities

The Torch Bearers, in the Plaza de Ramón y Cajal

Most of the university's facilities are located on the Moncloa campus, covering 300 ha, located in the northwest of Madrid, 1.5 km from the city center, bordered by the Manzanares River and the Casa de Campo to the west and the districts of Chamberí and Tetuán to the east. The faculties of Economics and Business, Psychology, Political Science and Sociology and Social Work are located on the Somosaguas Campus, in the west of Madrid. The assembly hall (paraninfo) remains in the university's historic building built in the 19th century, on the Calle de San Bernardo in the city center (Malasaña neighborhood).

The layout of the Moncloa campus is characterized by the arrangement of the different faculties in independent buildings separated from one another by green areas and sports facilities. The campus is crossed from north to south by the Avenida Complutense and from southeast to northwest by the Autovía del Noroeste (A-6). The health sciences faculties are located in the center of the campus, around the Plaza de Ramón y Cajal, where the Ciudad Universitaria metro station is located. The humanities faculties are located in the northwest area, around the Plaza de Menéndez Pelayo, while the natural sciences faculties are located in the northeast area, in the Plaza de las Ciencias; both squares are separated by the Avenida Complutense and the facilities of the Zona Norte Sports Complex. In the south of the campus are the university's colegios mayores, between the Avenida de Séneca and the Calle del Obispo Trejo.

Historic building

Historic building

Assembly hall in the historic building

Faculty of Geography and History

Faculty of Pharmacy

Faculty of Computer Science

Faculty of Physical Sciences

Faculty of Geological Sciences

Main article: Caserón de San Bernardo

The university's historic building is located in the center of Madrid, on the Calle de San Bernardo in the Malasaña neighborhood. It is a building in the Neoclassical style, the work of Narciso Pascual Colomer, built from 1847 onward over the pre-existing building of the Novitiate of the Jesuits. The 19th-century remodeling completely transformed the building, which today measures 105 meters long and 58 meters wide. The assembly hall, completed in 1852, was built over the old church, and the two cloisters of the complex are used today as courtyards. The assembly hall is located in the northern part of the building, and in the southern part is the Professional School of Labor Relations, which is currently the only teaching center occupying the historic building. Adjoining the main building is the Valdecilla Pavilion, seat of the Marqués de Valdecilla Historical Library, also owned by the university, with its façade on the Calle del Noviciado.

The assembly hall, the work of Pascual Colomer, has an elliptical plan with axes 36 and 15 meters long and a height to the vault of 18.38 meters. The roof is a sail vault with an oculus with a skylight in the center. The decoration consists of allegories referring to the history of university culture and representations of famous figures of the Spanish arts and sciences. The sculptures of the space are the work of Ponzano Ponciano and the paintings are by Joaquín Espalter. The printed fabrics are by Mariano Fortuny. At present it is only used for the celebration of solemn ceremonies such as the investiture of new doctors.

Ownership of the building is currently shared by the university and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport. The university has expressed its intention to recover full ownership of the complex.

Libraries

The Library of the Complutense University of Madrid is a system made up of 32 libraries, with a collection of 2,941,815 volumes. In terms of the number of bibliographic holdings, it is the largest university library in Spain and the second-largest library in the country after the National Library of Spain. The collection grows by between 50,000 and 70,000 volumes each year, of which approximately 30,000 come from donations by institutions and individuals and the rest from purchases made by the university. It has 10,833 reading places and 920 computers for public use.

The main library of the system is the María Zambrano Library, located in the Plaza de Menéndez Pelayo, on the Moncloa campus. This library, partially inaugurated in 2011, accounted at the end of 2014 for approximately 15% of the reading places and 4% of the total holdings of the system; it currently has 2,100 reading places and the capacity to house 3,000,000 volumes, which means doubling the capacity of the university's library system. The María Zambrano Library is conceived as a general library. The other libraries of the system are specialized in different branches of knowledge and attached to different faculties of the university.

Museums

The Complutense University of Madrid administers fifteen museums on various subjects. Among the museums devoted to the health sciences are the Javier Puerta Museum of Anatomy, the Profesor Reverte Coma Museum of Medical and Forensic Anthropology, Paleopathology and Criminalistics, the Complutense Veterinary Museum and the Florestán Aguilar Museum of Dentistry. Among the museums on the natural sciences are the Museum of Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy, the Museum of Entomology and the Museum of Geology. Humanistic museums are the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology of America, the Museum of Hispanic Pharmacy and the Complutense Museum of Optics. There are two art museums: the Pedagogical Museum of Children's Art and the Complutense Pedagogical Textile Museum. Other museums of the University are the Museum of Astronomy and Geodesy, the Manuel Bartolomé Cossío Laboratory Museum of the History of Education and the García-Santesmases Computer Museum.

Housing

The Complutense University of Madrid has five colegios mayores of its own and 33 affiliated colegios mayores, which provide housing to students and organize cultural and educational activities. The university's five colegios mayores are coeducational, while among the affiliated ones there are men's, women's and coeducational colleges. Together they have 6,195 accommodation places, which makes la Docta the Spanish university with the largest student housing capacity. The university's own five colegios mayores are located within the campus, in the southern area, or in the neighboring district of Chamberí.

Most students live in shared rented apartments in the districts of Chamberí, Tetuán and Aluche, the closest to the university. The university has an intermediation service between property owners and students looking for housing. In the 2012–2013 academic year, 920 homeowners were associated with the program.

Parks and gardens

The university campus is home to the Alfonso XIII Royal Botanical Garden, a botanical garden of 5 ha that houses more than 1,000 plant species grouped into eight collections. It is located in the center of the campus, on the Avenida Complutense, between the faculties of Pharmacy, Information Sciences and Biological Sciences. Admission is open and free.

Transportation

The campus is connected to the Madrid Metro network through the Ciudad Universitaria station, located in the center of the campus in the Plaza de Ramón y Cajal, and the Vicente Aleixandre station, in the northeast, both on Line 6, which connects the campus with the neighboring districts of Chamberí and Tetuán. Via the metro network it takes 15 minutes to reach the Plaza de España, 18 minutes to the Puerta del Sol, 22 minutes to the Gran Vía, 26 minutes to the Retiro Park and 28 minutes to Atocha station.

The bus lines G, F and 82 also run through the campus, connecting it with the districts of Chamberí, Tetuán and El Pardo respectively. Line U is an internal campus line that connects the different faculties with one another and with the rectorate building.

Traditions and culture

Universimad music festival

The Complutense University of Madrid has traditionally been a major center of student activism. Demonstrations advocating various causes are frequent, and students take part in public affairs through student associations. In the 2012–2013 academic year there were 81 associations. The faculties with the most associations are Political Science and Sociology and Law.

Many musical groups have been formed at the Complutense University of Madrid, among them gospel choirs, symphony orchestras, and jazz and rock bands. The Universimad festival is held in May, at which the Premios Rock Villa de Madrid are awarded. The Complujazz jazz festival is held in July.

The theatrical activities held at the university include the Muestra de Teatro Mínimo y Monólogos (Showcase of Minimal Theater and Monologues) in December, and the Certamen de Teatro Universitario (University Theater Competition), held every May.

In literature, La Docta holds the annual Semana Complutense de las Letras (Complutense Week of Letters), with lectures, exhibitions, round tables, literary competitions, guided tours, theatrical performances and other activities held in venues on the campus and elsewhere in Madrid.

The university's official newspaper is Tribuna Complutense. Some faculties have their own media outlets, such as the magazine Somoeconomicus of the Faculty of Economics and Business Studies.

Community

Students

The Complutense University of Madrid is the university with the largest number of on-campus students in Spain and the second largest in Europe. In the 2012–2013 academic year it had 77,341 students. The presence of foreign students is particularly notable at the university within the Spanish context: in 2013, 11.5% of its students came from abroad, while the average for Spanish universities stands at 3.2%. Most of the foreign students come from Latin America, followed by Europeans and Asians.

Faculty

In the 2011–2012 academic year it had more than 6,000 professors. The Complutense University of Madrid is home to some of the most prestigious academics in Spain and the world.

Notable alumni and faculty

Ortega y Gasset

Ramón y Cajal

Various prominent figures of science, the arts, politics and culture have studied or worked as professors at the Complutense University of Madrid.

In philosophy, notable figures include José Ortega y Gasset, founder together with Miguel de Unamuno of the School of Madrid, Fernando Savater, Xavier Zubiri and María Zambrano.

In the natural sciences, the Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine Severo Ochoa and Santiago Ramón y Cajal passed through the Complutense University of Madrid. So did Gregorio Marañón, an endocrinologist as well as a historian and writer, the paleontologist Juan Luis Arsuaga, and the physicist Ignacio Cirac, winner of the Wolf Prize in Physics.

In the social sciences and humanities, notable figures include the economists José Luis Sampedro and Heinrich Freiherr von Stackelberg and the historians Francisco Giner de los Ríos, Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo, Claudio Sánchez-Albornoz, Ramón Menéndez Pidal, Miguel Artola, Manuel Fernández Álvarez, José Manuel Roldán and Adolfo Domínguez Monedero.

In the world of the arts, five Nobel laureates in Literature have passed through La Docta (Vicente Aleixandre, Jacinto Benavente, Camilo José Cela, José Echegaray and Mario Vargas Llosa). So have other prominent writers and poets such as Pío Baroja, Federico García Lorca, Antonio Machado, Miguel de Unamuno, Dámaso Alonso, Concepción Arenal, Francisco Ayala, Gerardo Diego, Torcuato Luca de Tena and Álvaro Pombo. In film, notable figures include the directors Luis Buñuel, Jaime de Armiñán and Alejandro Amenábar.

The Complutense University of Madrid has trained prominent Spanish politicians since the 19th century (every Minister of the Economy of the democratic era has held a degree in economics or law from the Complutense University of Madrid), among them Emilio Castelar, Antonio Maura, Manuel Azaña, José Antonio Primo de Rivera, Enrique Tierno Galván, Adolfo Suárez, José María Aznar, Rodrigo Rato, Josep Borrell, Manuel Marín, Isabel Tocino, Eduardo Maura and Pablo Iglesias Turrión.

Sports

Estadio Nacional Complutense

La Docta's sports facilities are grouped into four complexes located in different areas of the campus.

The Complejo Deportivo Zona Sur (South Zone Sports Complex), located in the south of the campus near the rectorate, has soccer fields, rugby fields, beach volleyball courts, an indoor frontón, a gym, a swimming pool, a climbing wall, and facilities for track and field, padel, tennis, basketball, handball, futsal and volleyball.

In the center of the campus, near the Faculty of Information Sciences and the Ciudad Universitaria metro station, is the Estadio Nacional Complutense rugby stadium. It is the rugby stadium with the largest capacity in Spain, which is why it is used by the Spanish National Rugby Team in international competitions.

In the north of the campus is the Complejo Deportivo Zona Norte (North Zone Sports Complex), which includes soccer fields and rugby fields as well as tennis, basketball and futsal courts.

In the northeast area of the campus, next to Education - Teacher Training Center, there is an indoor multi-sport arena and an indoor swimming pool.

In the arts and popular culture

The film Tesis, by Alejandro Amenábar, is set in the Faculty of Information Sciences of the Complutense University of Madrid.

See also

• University
• Academic ranking of universities in Spain
• Ranking of Spanish universities
• List of universities, colegios mayores, centers and agencies in the Ciudad Universitaria of Madrid
• List of honorary doctors of the Complutense University of Madrid
• List of rectors of the Complutense University of Madrid

Bibliography

• Decreto 32/2017, de 21 de marzo, del Consejo de Gobierno, por el que se aprueban los Estatutos de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid. BOCM. 24/03/2017; (71):59. (in Spanish)
• Araque, Natividad (2010). "La creación de la Universidad de Madrid y los acuerdos del claustro de profesores durante el rectorado de Aniceto Moreno". Cuadernos del Instituto Antonio de Nebrija (in español). 13 (2): 151–189. ISSN 1139-6628.
• Buela-Casal, Gualberto (2014). "Ranking 2012 de investigación de las universidades públicas españolas" (PDF). Psicothema (in español). 26 (2): 149–158. ISSN 0214-9915.
• Carmona, María (1996). "La Universidad Central y su distrito: fondos documentales en el Archivo Histórico Nacional" (PDF). Boletín de la ANABAD (in español). 46 (1): 167–190. ISSN 0210-4164.
• Palomera, Isabel; Flores, Carlos J. (2013). "El Archivo General de la Universidad Complutense, memoria de una larga historia universitaria en Madrid". Cuadernos del Instituto Antonio de Nebrija (in español). 16 (2): 163–193. ISSN 1139-6628.
• Puyol, José María (2005). "El plan de estudios de Derecho en la Universidad Central (1923-1931)" (PDF). Cuadernos del Instituto Antonio de Nebrija (in español) (8): 281–358. ISSN 1139-6628.
• Quintana, Manuel José (1822). Discurso pronunciado en la Universidad Central el día de su instalación (7 de noviembre de 1822), por Manuel José Quintana, presidente de la Dirección General de Estudios (in español). Madrid: Imprenta nacional. (alternative link: http://bibliotecadigitalhispanica.bne.es/view/action/singleViewer.do?dvs=1399739112718~85&locale=es_ES&VIEWER_URL=%2Fview%2Faction%2FsingleViewer.do%3F&DELIVERY_RULE_ID=10&frameId=1&usePid1=true&usePid2=true)

External links

• Official website of the Complutense University of Madrid
• Royal Order concerning the transfer of the University of Alcalá to Madrid, of October 29, 1836, published in the Gaceta de Madrid on November 7, 1836
• Real Colegio Complutense at Harvard

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