University of Valencia

Overview

The University of Valencia (UV) is a public research university in Valencia, Spain, with a history that dates back to the thirteenth century. One of the oldest higher learning institutions in Spain, it is regarded as a leading university in the country hosting about 55,000 students in a given academic year.

Today, UV is a modern university in the EU immersed in teaching, learning, and research initiatives. The university offers undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate degrees across a wide array of fields, from business and economics to technology, sciences, social sciences, health sciences, and humanities. It also has strong academic programs in engineering, medicine, and law. UV has Spanish as the official medium of instructions, with select courses delivered in the local vernacular, Valencian. English is used in some of the courses, as well.

The university has 18 departments spread out in its three main campuses, one in the metropolitan Valencia area and the other two in nearby municipalities. The colleges of Physics, Biology, Pharmacy, Mathematics, Chemistry, and the School of Engineering are grouped in one campus, while the School of Medicine, the School of Dentistry, Physiotherapy, Nursing, Geography and History, Psychology, Philosophy, and Educational Sciences are based in another campus. The School of Law, Economics and Business, and the School of Elementary Teaching, meanwhile, are located in the third campus.

An exchange program and those from the International Cooperation and Development Aid are also available, which allow students to pursue credits in international partner schools across Europe, North America, Asia, and Latin America.

As a research university, UV conducts its projects within a school or research institute in the campus or in its science park. In particular, the research institutes are run outside of a specific department; they have a multidisciplinary structure that helps to align their research projects along social and economic context.

The University of Valencia traced its roots to 1246 when a papal bull authorized the establishment of an estudis generals in the region. In April 1499, the school would be granted university status by the Valencian government. UV initially offered studies in Greek, Latin, Arabic, Hebrew, mathematics and physics, along with philosophy, theology, Canon law, and medicine. By the late seventeenth century through the eighteenth century, the university would grow in prosperity driven by its academic programs in Greek, Latin, medicine, and mathematics. A study of herbs was also introduced in UV.

The university was home to historical personalities in the fields of medicine and life sciences, including Pedro Ximeno, Luis Collado, and Vicente Alonzo Lorente. Today, it graduates notable politicians, economists, sociologists, medical doctors, and mathematicians both in Spain and abroad.