José Simeón Cañas Central American University ( es, Universidad Centroamericana "José Simeón Cañas"), also known as UCA El Salvador, is a
private
Private or privates may refer to:
Music
* " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation''
* Private (band), a Denmark-based band
* "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...
university with
nonprofit
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
purposes in
San Salvador
San Salvador (; ) is the capital and the largest city of El Salvador and its eponymous department. It is the country's political, cultural, educational and financial center. The Metropolitan Area of San Salvador, which comprises the capital i ...
,
El Salvador
El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...
, run by the
Society of Jesus. It was founded on September 15, 1965, at the request of a group of
Roman Catholic families who appealed to the Salvadoran government and the Society of Jesus in order to create another university as an alternative to the
University of El Salvador, becoming the first private institution of
higher education in the country. The
Jesuits also run
Central American University in Nicaragua (UCA Managua), opened in 1960.
History
UCA has since evolved to be one of the best institutions of higher learning in
Central America (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama). This is the case, despite the university's focus on playing a decisive role in the transformation of the unjust Salvadoran society. Such a focus within the Salvadoran context has driven the university to give priority to undergraduate degrees, research within the social sciences, and popular presentation of research results ("social projectionl") in local peer-reviewed journals.
In the 1970s and 1980s, during the
Civil War in El Salvador
The Salvadoran Civil War ( es, guerra civil de El Salvador) was a twelve year period of civil war in El Salvador that was fought between the government of El Salvador and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), a coalition or ...
, UCA was known as the home of several internationally recognized Jesuit scholars and intellectuals, including
Jon Sobrino
Jon Sobrino (born 1938) is a Jesuit Catholic priest and theologian, known mostly for his contributions to Latin American liberation theology. He received worldwide attention in 2007 when the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is ...
,
Ignacio Ellacuría
Ignacio Ellacuría ( Portugalete, Biscay, Spain, November 9, 1930 – San Salvador, November 16, 1989) was a Spanish-Salvadoran Jesuit, philosopher, and theologian who worked as a professor and rector at the Universidad Centroamericana "Jo ...
,
Ignacio Martín-Baró, and
Segundo Montes. They were outspoken against the abuses of the Salvadoran military and government, and carried out research to demonstrate the effects of the war and poverty in the country. The extreme social conditions in El Salvador provided a very rich empirical basis for innovative research within sociology, social anthropology, philosophy, social psychology, and theology. These scholars made important and lasting contributions within these fields. Ellacuría, Martín-Baró and Segundo Montes, along with three other Jesuit professors, their housekeeper, and her daughter, were murdered by the Salvadoran Armed forces on November 16, 1989, in one of the most notorious episodes from the Civil War (see
Murder of UCA scholars
During the Salvadoran Civil War, on 16 November 1989, Salvadoran Army soldiers killed six Jesuits and two others, the caretaker's wife and daughter, at their residence on the campus of Central American University (known as UCA El Salvador) in S ...
).
Campus
The university is located at
Antiguo Cuscatlán
Antiguo Cuscatlán ''(colloquially known as Antiguo)'' is a municipality in the La Libertad Department (El Salvador), La Libertad department of El Salvador, and its eastern tip lays in San Salvador Department part of the Metropolitan Area of San ...
. The university campus has 38 acres (16 ha) with 33 buildings, a professional soccer field, basketball and volleyball courts, as well as three auditoriums and four cafeterias. The campus also includes a minimarket, a museum, three clinics, a book shop, a main library, several smaller thematic libraries, and a documentation center.
Faculties
* Faculty of Economics and Business Sciences
* Faculty of Human and Social Sciences
* Faculty of Engineering and Architecture
Academic departments
* Department of Mathematics
* Department of Business Administration
* Department of Judicial Sciences
* Department of Sociology and Political Science
* Department of Economics
* Department of Accounting and Finance
* Department of Psychology
* Department of Philosophy
* Department of Theology
* Department of Educational Sciences
* Department of Communications and Culture
* Department of Public Health
* Department of Operations and Systems
* Department of Electronics and Informatics
* Department of Energy and Fluid Sciences
* Department of Structural Mechanics
* Department of Spatial Organization
* Department of Engineering Process and Environmental Science
Social projection
* UCA Audiovisuals
* YSUCA 91.7 FM Radio
* Monseñor Romero Center
* University's Public Opinion Institute - IUDOP
* University's Human Rights Institute - IDHUCA
[
]
Academics
Undergraduate programs
* Architecture
* Civil Engineering
* Electrical Engineering
* Mechanical Engineering
* Industrial Engineering
* Chemical Engineering
* Food Engineering
* Energetic Engineering
* Computing Engineering
* Technician in Marketing
* Technician in Accounting
* Licenciate in Philosophy
* Licenciate in Theology
* Licenciate in Psychology
* Licenciate in Economics
* Licenciate in Marketing
* Licenciate in Public Accounting
* Licenciate in Business Administration
* Licenciate in Agribusiness Administration
* Licenciate in Judicial Sciences
* Licenciate in Social Communications
* Professorate of Theology
* Professorate of Special Education
* Professorate of Preschool Education
* Professorate of Basic Education (1st & 2nd Cycles)
* Professorate of English Language (3rd Cycle Basic and Middle Education)
Postgraduate programs
* Master in Iberoamerican Philosophy
* Master in Social Sciences
* Master in Political Sciences
* Master in Latin American Theology
* Master in Local Development
* Master in Criminal Constitutional Law
* Master in Applied Statistics to Investigation
* Master in Environmental Management
* Master in Industrial Maintenance Management
* Master in Public Health
* Master in Communitarian Psychology
* Master in Educational Evaluation and Politics
* Master in Communications
* Master in Finance
* Master in Financial Audit
* Master in Business Law
* Master in Business Administration
* Doctorate in Iberoamerican Philosophy
* Doctorate in Social SciencesGraduate
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See also
* Education in El Salvador
* List of Jesuit sites
* List of universities in El Salvador
* José Simeón Cañas
José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ).
In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernacul ...
References
Official website
{{authority control
Universities in El Salvador
Jesuit universities and colleges
Educational institutions established in 1965
San Salvador
1965 establishments in El Salvador