Menéndez Pelayo International University ("UIMP" in Spanish) is a

public university A public university or public college is a university or college that is in owned by the state or receives significant public funds through a national or subnational government, as opposed to a private university. Whether a national universit ...

with administrative headquarters in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

and campuses in

Santander Santander may refer to: Places * Santander, Spain, a port city and capital of the autonomous community of Cantabria, Spain * Santander Department, a department of Colombia * Santander State, former state of Colombia * Santander de Quilichao, a m ...

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, Cartagena, Cuenca,

Granada Granada (,, DIN 31635, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the fo ...

La Línea de la Concepción La Línea de la Concepción (, more often referred to as La Línea) is a municipality of Spain belonging to the province of Cádiz, Andalusia. The city lies on the sandy isthmus which is part of the eastern flank of the Bay of Gibraltar, an ...

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

and

Tenerife Tenerife (; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands. It is home to 43% of the total population of the archipelago. With a land area of and a population of 978,100 inhabitants as of Janu ...

. The University also conducts classes at the

Luis Seoane Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...

Foundation in

A Coruña A Coruña (; es, La Coruña ; historical English: Corunna or The Groyne) is a city and municipality of Galicia, Spain. A Coruña is the most populated city in Galicia and the second most populated municipality in the autonomous community and s ...

and the

Huesca Huesca (; an, Uesca) is a city in north-eastern Spain, within the autonomous community of Aragon. It is also the capital of the Spanish province of the same name and of the comarca of Hoya de Huesca. In 2009 it had a population of 52,059, almo ...

campus of the

University of Zaragoza The University of Zaragoza, sometimes referred to as Saragossa University () is a public university with teaching campuses and research centres spread over the three provinces of Aragon, Spain. Founded in 1542, it is one of the oldest universiti ...

. UIMP is an "Autonomous agency" within the

Ministry of Universities The Ministry of Universities is a ministerial department in the Government of Spain responsible for proposing and carrying out the government policy on universities as well as representing Spain in the European Union and other international organ ...

which, according to its

bylaw A by-law (bye-law, by(e)law, by(e) law), or as it is most commonly known in the United States bylaws, is a set of rules or law established by an organization or community so as to regulate itself, as allowed or provided for by some higher authorit ...

s, is defined as an "academic center for high culture" It was named in honor of

Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo (; 3 November 1856 – 19 May 1912) was a Spanish scholar, historian and literary critic. Even though his main interest was the history of ideas, and Hispanic philology in general, he also cultivated poetry, transla ...

and is the primary institution in Spain for teaching the Spanish language and culture to foreign students. UIMP offers

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

s in many areas of study, including: "Translation and New Technologies: Translation of Software and Multimedia Products" (in collaboration with Amergin (The University Institute of Research in Irish Studies, University of A Coruña) and Istrad (Instituto Superior de Estudios Lingüísticos and Translation based in Seville). "Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language" (in conjunction with the

Cervantes Institute Instituto Cervantes (the Cervantes Institute) is a worldwide nonprofit organization created by the Spanish government in 1991. It is named after Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616), the author of ''Don Quixote'' and perhaps the most important figur ...

); "

Renewable Energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...

", including

fuel cells A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen fuel, hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most bat ...

and

hydrogen Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, an ...

(in collaboration with the

Spanish National Research Council The Spanish National Research Council ( es, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, CSIC) is the largest public institution dedicated to research in Spain and the third largest in Europe. Its main objective is to develop and promote res ...

); a graduate degree in "Economics and Finance", under the auspices of

CEMFI CEMFI ( es, Centro de Estudios Monetarios y Financieros; English: Center for Monetary and Financial Studies) is an institution devoted to teaching and research in Economics. It was started in 1987, becoming the foundation of the Bank of Spain in 1 ...

; and "

Contemporary History Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from approximately 1945 to the present. Contemporary history is either a subset of the late modern period, or it is ...

", with the participation of several other public universities.

History

Founding and early years

Menéndez Pelayo International University was created in 1932 by decree of the

Second Spanish Republic The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, after the deposition of Alfonso XIII, King Alfonso XIII, and was di ...

, following a proposal by the Minister of Public Instruction,

Fernando de los Ríos Fernando de los Ríos Urruti (8 December 1879 – 31 May 1949) was a Spanish professor of Political Law and Socialist politician who was in turn Minister of Justice, Minister of Education and Foreign Minister between 1931 and 1933 in the early yea ...

, under the name "International Summer University of Santander". Its headquarters were established at the

Palacio de la Magdalena The Palacio de la Magdalena (Spanish for Magdalena Palace) is a palace in Santander (Cantabria), Spain. Its construction was financed by popular subscription and given to the Spanish Royal Family for use as a summer residence. It was built by ...

, which had been a summer residence for King

Alfonso XIII Alfonso XIII (17 May 1886 – 28 February 1941), also known as El Africano or the African, was King of Spain from 17 May 1886 to 14 April 1931, when the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed. He was a monarch from birth as his father, Alfo ...

from 1913 to 1930. The palace had originally been donated to the king by the Santander City Council. It first

Rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

s were the historian and

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

Ramón Menéndez Pidal Ramón Menéndez Pidal (; 13 March 1869 – 14 November 1968) was a Spanish philologist and historian."Ramon Menendez Pidal", ''Almanac of Famous People'' (2011) ''Biography in Context'', Gale, Detroit He worked extensively on the history of t ...

and the eminent physicist

Blas Cabrera Felipe Blas Cabrera y Felipe (May 20, 1878 – August 1, 1945) was a Spanish physicist. He worked in the domain of experimental physics with focus in the magnetic properties of matter. He is considered one of the greatest scientists of Spain and one ...

. The same decree named poet and professor

Pedro Salinas Pedro Salinas y Serrano (27 November 1891 – 4 December 1951) was a Spanish poet, a member of the Generation of '27, as well as a university teacher, scholar and literary critic. In 1937, he delivered the Turnbull lectures at Johns Hopkins ...

as Secretary General to recognize his role in providing inspiration for the new University. During the summers from 1933 to 1936, many courses were developed, with an emphasis on Spanish language and literature. These courses were designed for foreigners who, since 1926, had been receiving instruction at the Menéndez Pelayo Society; and for postgraduates of the Medical Institute whose classes had formerly been located at the Marqués de Valdecilla University Hospital.

Post-war re-establishment

These activities were interrupted by the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

and were not resumed until 1945, following the approval of an order that created the Menéndez Pelayo International University with headquarters in the Hospital of San Rafael in Santander. At the beginning of summer in 1949, the University returned to its former home in the Palacio de la Magdalena, courtesy of a grant from Don Juan de Borbón. Soon, given the increase in activity at the University, it became necessary to establish a campus at the Parque Atlántico de Las Llamas, also in Santander, with residential units as well as classrooms.

Years of growth

Since 1983, UIMP has extended its activities to seven other cities and has introduced shorter (often self-contained) courses. Its stated objective is to satisfy two requirements that are equally desirable and indispensable to the formation of modern culture: attention to the universal human needs that must present themselves to every sensitive mind; and the skill to clarify carefully defined technical problems in a way that represents a positive advance in each discipline. Every year, the University has expanded it courses to reflect new developments in the

social sciences Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of soci ...

and

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...

, as well as technology, and has extended its cultural activities to include music, theater, poetry and the cinema. In 2008, UIMP developed agreements with other institutions (such as the Regional Department of Immigration of the

Generalitat Valenciana The Generalitat Valenciana is the generic name covering the different self-government institutions under which the Spanish autonomous community of Valencia is politically organized. It consists of seven institutions including the ''Corts Valen ...

and the EOI Business School) to collaborate in the creation of a master's degree in the "Organization and Management of Industrial Technology". The following year, UIMP joined with the

University of Cantabria University of Cantabria (UC) ( es, Universidad de Cantabria), is a public university located in Santander, Torrelavega and Comillas in Cantabria, Spain. It was founded in 1972 and is organized in 15 schools and colleges. It was selected as ...

in the Cantabria International Campus (CCI), which the Ministry of Education and Science declared to be a regional "Campus of International Excellence".Cantabria International Campus website
/ref>

Rectors

: 1933-1934. *

: 1934-1936. * Ciriaco Pérez Bustamante: 1947-1968. * Florentino Pérez Embid: 1968-1974. * Francisco Ynduráin: 1974-1980. * Raúl Morodo: 1980-1983. * Santiago Roldán: 1983-1989. *

Ernest Lluch Ernest Lluch Martín, (21 January 1937 – 21 November 2000) was a Spanish economist and politician, member of the Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC). He was Minister of Health and Consumption from 1982 to 1986 in the first Spanish Socialist Wor ...

: 1989-1995. * José Luis García Delgado: 1995-2005. * Luciano Parejo: 2005-2006. * Salvador Ordóñez: 2006-2013. * César Nombela: 2013–present.

The Menéndez Pelayo International Prize

Since 1987, UIMP has sponsored and presented the Menéndez Pelayo International Prize, established under the patronage of Eulalio Ferrer (1921-2009), a Spanish-Mexican entrepreneur. The award is given to honor those in the literary or scientific communities whose work has humanistic value, in the tradition of the University's namesake, Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo. Citizens of any Spanish or Portuguese speaking country are eligible.

References

External links

Official Website

UIMP-TV (streaming)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Menendez Pelayo International University Universities and colleges in Spain Universities in Cantabria Educational institutions established in 1932 1932 establishments in Spain