Catalan Universities

There are 12 Universities in Catalonia;

• Universitat de Barcelona (Barcelona)
  The UB was officially founded under the royal prerogative granted by Alphonse the Magnanimous, in Naples, on 3 November 1450 (559 years ago!). Its website has loads of information about the university, its history and life in Barcelona. This page might be especially useful when considering the year abroad :).
  
• Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Barcelona)
  The UAB was founded in 1968 with the aim of establishing four principles of autonomy: freedom to select teaching staff, admission available to all students (but with a limited number), freedom to create its own study plans and freedom to administrate the university's capital. Again, the university's website has information about studying there as part of the Erasmus scheme.
  
• Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (Barcelona, Castelldefels, Manresa, Sant Cugat del Vallès, Terrassa and Vilanova i la Geltrú)
  The UPC was founded in 1971 as the Universitat Politècnica de Barcelona and changed its name in 1984 to reflect its regional presence. There's an interesting but really long video on the front page of the English version of the site, although, it is voiced over in English there are key words in Catalan that fly around.
  
• Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona)
  The UPF was founded in 1990 and was named after Pompeu Fabra, who laid down the standards of the modern Catalan language and was exiled during at the beginning of the Franco dictatorship. His published works include Normes ortogràfiques (Spelling Rules) published in 1913, Gramàtica catalana (Catalan Grammar) of 1918 and Diccionari general de la llengua catalana (General Dictionary of the Catalan Language) published in 1932.
  
• Universitat de Lleida (Lleida)
  The UdL was founded in 1991 bringing together all university courses which had been taught in Lleida as branches of universities in Barcelona since 1968. From 1300 until 1717, when a new model of university was created by Bourbon reformers, there existed the Estudi General de Lleida in which the current Universitat de Lleida has its roots.
  
• Universitat de Girona (Girona)
  The UdG was created in 1991 by decree of the Catalan government. Like Lleida, Girona had an Estudi General from 1446 (although classes only started in 1572) up until 1717
  
• Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Tarragona)
  The URV was also created in 1991 by decree of the Catalan government. It is named after Antoni Rovira i Virgili a famous Catalan writer, historian and politician. The first institution of university education in the area was founded by cardinal Gaspar Cervantes de Gatea in the 16th century.
  
• Universitat Ramon Llull (Barcelona & Tarragona)
  The URL was created in 1990 and has incorporated faculties and institutions of the area that have been founded from 1864 onwards.
  
• Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
  The UOC was created in 1994 as an initiative of the Catalan government to provide access to lifelong learning through the use of information technologies and a personalised educational model. It is on-line based, like the Open University in the UK.
  
• Universitat de Vic (Vic)
  The UVic was officially recognised by the Catalan Parliament in May 1997 and so is a young university but not the youngest in Catalonia.
  
• Universitat Internacional de Catalunya (Barcelona and Sant Cugat del Vallès )
  The UIC was founded in October 1997 and has two campuses: the Barcelona campus and the Sant Cugat campus. It another young university but, again, not the youngest in Catalonia.
  
• Universitat Abat Oliba CEU
  The UAO is the youngest university in Catalonia. Although it has its roots in the Centre Universitari Abat Oliba, it was officially recognised as the UAO by the Catalan Parliament in 2003.
  

I plan to find out more about the university reform in the early 1990s that is the reason so many universities were created in 1991 by the government in future posts :).

Becky X