The Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in Spain. The combination of expert teaching staff, first-rate research, excellent facilities and cutting-edge scientific laboratories places the UCM among the best higher education institutions in Europe.

The Universidad Complutense de Madrid was founded in Alcalá de Henares as the Complutum by Cardinal Cisneros, following the issue of a Papal bull by Pope Alexander VI in 1499. However, the origins of the institution can be traced back to 1293, the year in which Sancho IV of Castile opened the Escuelas Generales de Alcalá, which would later become the Universidad Complutense. During the reign of Isabel II, the University was transferred to Calle San Bernardo in Madrid, where it was given the name of Universidad Central. In 1927, plans were made to create a new university complex in the Moncloa area of the city, on a site donated by Alfonso XIII. In 1970 the Spanish government introduced a series of reforms to the public higher education system, and the Universidad Central became the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, as it its called to this day. It was during this period that the Somosaguas campus was opened to house the social science faculties, as the Moncloa site could not be extended to meet the scale of expansion of the University.

The academic quality of the University is built upon the experience of its 6,000 highly qualified teaching staff and the wide variety of specialist options offered to students of different disciplines. Qualifications from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid reflect a high level of academic achievement and prepare students for the requirements of an increasingly competitive professional world. The University is currently adapting its degree structures and quality requirements to the conditions established by the European Higher Education Area, and is fully committed to providing excellence through public tuition in all areas of the sciences and humanities at undergraduate and postgraduate level. Undergraduate degrees at the UCM cover a wide range of subjects in the four main knowledge areas: experimental sciences, health sciences, social sciences and the humanities. One of the keys to achieving excellence in higher education is the use of innovative teaching methods that involve students more fully in the learning process and encourage them to take an active role in developing the required learning outcomes.

Research is one of the most important areas of work in most faculties and schools, and UCM researchers are involved in a number of joint projects with Spanish companies, public institutions and foreign partners. The extensive research capacity of the UCM is reflected by its participation and success in numerous external funding programs and in the work of its 35 dedicated University Research Institutes, which develop the research areas covered by the faculties and schools and promote interdisciplinary cooperation in joint research programs. The UCM’s nineteen Research Support Centres provide technical assistance, offer advice on optimizing current techniques, and provide a channel for advanced research and development activities.

The Universidad Complutense de Madrid is renowned for the diversity of its non-academic activities, which have long been a particular strength of the institution. Students can take part in a wide range of cultural activities, including theatre groups, film screenings, choirs, musical groups and orchestras, literary discussion and arts and crafts, and in the many sports activities offered at the UCM’s five sports centres in Moncloa and Somosaguas. A sports medicine clinic is also available to those requiring advice on and assistance with injuries and sporting performance. Students can also join the University´s prestigious debating forum, the Foro Complutense, and take part in internationally recognized courses such as the Escuelas de Verano summer programs taught at the Monastery of San Lorenzo in El Escorial, organized by the General Foundation of the UCM. The Moncloa campus hosts regular seminars, meetings and conferences, most of which are open to students, who can further their involvement by joining one of the numerous specialized groups and associations, which cater for diverse interests.

The UCM is involved in cooperation agreements with a large number of foreign universities, through which it offers a range of exchange programs to students, researchers and teaching staff. The University is currently a signatory to agreements with institutions in Europe, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Oceania. The academic and cultural benefits of these exchange programs and the broader world view that students necessarily acquire during periods of study abroad are a distinct advantage in an increasingly competitive labour market.

The UCM has over hundred hectares of green areas and more than twenty-five hectares of sports facilities, including football and rugby pitches, basketball and handball courts, tennis courts and beach volleyball courts, athletics tracks, gym facilities and an indoor climbing wall. The University also runs a series of specific associations for aerobics, gymnastics, yoga, scuba diving, tai-chi, cardio box, kayak-polo, chess and archery. The UCM boasts the largest university library in Spain, offering study space for over 9,600 students. Other services include a student rights office, an office for non-EU students, a student disability office, and a virtual campus used by teachers and students of approximately six thousand individual subjects.

The UCM offers a wide range of quality degree programs built upon a long and distinguished academic tradition. Graduates enjoy the unparalleled degree of recognition that the UCM´s reputation confers, which is highly valued in social and professional circles throughout the world. This prestige has been acquired over many years and is in no small part thanks to work of the leading academics who have taught successive generations of UCM students. The benefits of this strong reputation will accompany graduates into their working lives, and indeed many of the leading figures in Spanish politics and industry passed through the classrooms of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid during their education.

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