The Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), formerly known as the Central University and the University of Madrid, and unofficially known as “la Docta” is the oldest public university in Madrid, Community of Madrid, Spain, considered one of the most important and prestigious universities in Spain and the Spanish-speaking world.
Founded in Alcalá de Henares in 1293 (before relocating to Madrid in 1836), it is one of the oldest operating universities in the world.
According to most international reference rankings, the Complutense University is among the 100 best universities in the world and is listed as one of the 70 best in Europe. It is also recognized for its degrees in Dentistry, Veterinary Medicine and Modern Languages, which are ranked among the top 50 internationally, while its degrees in Pharmacy, Geography, History, Archaeology, Anthropology, Linguistics, Classical Philology, Communication, and Law are among the top 100 worldwide. In addition, it is currently the 3rd largest face-to-face university on the European continent, the greenest university in Spain and one of the the 50 greenest on the planet.
It has three campuses: the Ciudad Universitaria campus, the Somosaguas campus and the Chamberí-Centro campus since January 25, 2022, in addition to the historic building located in the center of Madrid, on San Bernardo Street in the Malasaña neighborhood. It was founded in 1822 from the meeting in a single institution of the teachings imparted in different centers, including the Royal Studies of San Isidro and the Royal Museum of Natural Sciences of Madrid, to which a few years later the University of Alcalá, the College of Surgery of San Carlos and the College of Pharmacy of San Fernando would be added.
The University City of Madrid, also called the Campus de Moncloa, is a complex in the Moncloa-Aravaca district, that holds buildings of two universities and several related organizations. The campus was built between 1929 and 1936, when the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) broke out. It was the scene of much fighting during the Civil War and was badly damaged. The original buildings were repaired or rebuilt after the Civil War and new buildings were added.
Of the eight Spanish winners of a Nobel Prize, seven studied or were teachers at the Complutense University. Among them, the Nobel Prize winners in Medicine Severo Ochoa and Santiago Ramón y Cajal and the Nobel Prize winners in Literature José Echegaray y Eizaguirre, Camilo José Cela, Vicente Aleixandre, Jacinto Benavente and Mario Vargas Llosa.
Also students of the Complutense University were notable figures in the arts, sciences, philosophy and politics of Spain and the world, such as Antonio Machado, Federico García Lorca, Gregorio Marañón y Posadillo, Manuel Azaña Díaz, Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo and José Ortega y Gasset. The latter two were the founders of the philosophical movement called the Madrid School, whose centre of diffusion was the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters (now the Faculty of Philosophy) of the Complutense University of Madrid.
King Juan Carlos I also passed through these classrooms, who studied Law, Economics and Public Finance, finishing in 1961, when he was still a prince of Spain; His daughter, Infanta Cristina de Borbón, studied Political Science at this university, graduating in 1989, and his daughter-in-law, Queen Letizia of Spain, graduated in journalism from this university in 1995.19
At an international level, the Complutense University maintains cooperation agreements with some of the most prestigious universities in the world such as the University of Oxford, the University of Paris Pantheon-Sorbonne, the University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Harvard University, the University of Chicago and the University of California at Berkeley. With Harvard University it signed the agreement that allowed the creation of the Royal Complutense College at Harvard, which aims to promote academic, intellectual and scientific 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.
Transport
The campus is connected to the Madrid Metro network via the Ciudad Universitaria station, located in the centre of the campus in Plaza de Ramón y Cajal, and Vicente Aleixandre, in the northeast, both on line 6, which connects the campus with the neighbouring districts of Chamberí and Tetuán. Via the metro network it takes 15 minutes to reach Plaza de España, 18 minutes to Puerta del Sol, 22 minutes to Gran Vía, 26 minutes to Parque del Retiro and 28 minutes to Atocha station.
The G, F and 82 Madrid Buses lines also run through the campus, connecting the campus with the districts of Chamberí, Tetuán and El Pardo respectively. Line U is an internal line to the campus that connects the different faculties with each other and with the rectorate building.
See also TOP universities of Spain