University of Alcala

Welcome to the University of Alcalá, a World Heritage Site, one of the oldest universities in Europe, which has its origins in the Studium Generale established in Alcalá de Henares on 20 May 1293. In 1499, Cardinal Cisneros gave fresh impetus to these studies by creating a Colegio Mayor (the Colegio de San Ildefonso), and the University of Alcalá became one of the first examples of a university town.
Some of the greatest names in Spanish history and culture have passed through its classrooms, including Lope de Vega, Calderón de la Barca, Francisco de Quevedo, Tirso de Molina, Fray Luis de Leon, Ignatius of Loyola, Juan de Mariana, Arias Montano, Ginés de Sepulveda, and Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos, among others. Located about thirty kilometers from the center of Madrid, the city of Alcalá de Henares is also known as the birthplace of Cervantes, the creator of the unforgettable Don Quixote de la Mancha.
The University of Alcalá is a modern university, offering a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications adapted to the European Higher Education Area, in all knowledge areas, ranging from the Humanities to Engineering, and from Social Sciences to Education and Experimental and Biomedical Sciences. More than 28,000 students pursue their studies at the University of Alcalá. Around 16,000 are taking Bachelor's degree courses. More than 12,000 are taking Postgraduate and Continuing Education courses, spread across three different campuses: the Historical Centre, where courses in Humanities, Architecture, Social Sciences, Law and Economics are taught in buildings dating back to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the external science and technology campus, where courses in the areas of Experimental Sciences, Health Sciences and Engineering are taught and the Guadalajara campus, where courses in Education, Audiovisual Communication, Modern Languages, and Translation, Business Sciences, Nursing, Building Science and Technology, and Tourism are taught. The University's main strengths include its teaching of the Spanish language and culture, research in the fields of biomedicine and bioengineering, and its strong commitment to sustainability, which has made the University a leading institution in this field. It has five partners, University Hospitals, five multidisciplinary University Institutes, a science and technology park, and other experimental and biomedical research facilities.
Besides having a rich architectural and artistic heritage, a legacy of its long history dating back to the late fifteenth century, the University of Alcalá is a university committed to technological innovation and collaboration with business and industry and the internationalization of its studies and its research. This can be seen in the more than 6,000 international students who come to study in our classrooms every year.