The University of Alicante ( ca-valencia, Universitat d'Alacant, italic=no, ; es, Universidad de Alicante, italic=no, ; also known by the acronym ''UA'') was established in 1979 on the basis of the Center for University Studies (CEU), which was founded in 1968. The university main campus is located in
San Vicente del Raspeig/Sant Vicent del Raspeig
San Vicente del Raspeig (Spanish) or Sant Vicent del Raspeig (Valencian), or simply San Vicente / Sant Vicent, is a municipality located in the ''comarca'' of Alacantí, in the province of Alicante, Spain, inside the conurbation of Alicante cit ...
, bordering the city of
Alicante
Alicante ( ca-valencia, Alacant) is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city was 337,482 , the second-largest in t ...
to the north. As of 2011/12 academic year, there are approximately 27,500 students studying there.
History
The university inherits the legacy of the
University of Orihuela
The University of Orihuela was located at the Convent of Santo Domingo, in Orihuela. It was the second university in the ancient Kingdom of Valencia, founded 40 years after the University of Valencia. The official name of the institution was Pont ...
that was established by
Papal Bull in 1545 and remained open for two centuries (1610-1808).
Studies
The University of Alicante offers courses in more than fifty degrees. It comprises over seventy departments and research groups in areas of
Social Science
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 soc ...
and
Law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
,
Experimental science
An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when ...
,
Technology
Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, ...
,
Liberal Arts
Liberal arts education (from Latin "free" and "art or principled practice") is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term ''art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the ...
,
Education
Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...
and
Health Science
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to health sciences:
Health sciences are those sciences which focus on health, or health care, as core parts of their subject matter. Health sciences relate to multiple acad ...
s, and five research institutes. Almost all classes are taught in
Spanish language
Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a world language, global language with more than 500 millio ...
, some are in English, in particular, in computer science and in business degrees, and a few are in
Valencian language
Valencian () or Valencian language () is the official, historical and traditional name used in the Valencian Community (Spain), and unofficially in the El Carche comarca in Murcia (Spain), to refer to the Romance language also known as Catala ...
.
Spanish language
Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a world language, global language with more than 500 millio ...
courses are offered for foreign students throughout the year and during the summer. The university offers English Language versions to PhD level including religion. Julian Havell was the first to graduate from this scheme.
The Department of Economics runs, in Europe, a well-known Graduate Program in Economics which is an American-style full-time program taught entirely in English. The program provides students with a thorough theoretical and practical training in microeconomics, macroeconomics and econometrics, as well as specialization in applied fields. The aim of the program is to prepare students for professional careers in universities, public and private research organizations, international institutions, consultancy and business.
Campus
The university has a modern campus of one square kilometer. La Rabassa airfield was located on these lands until the opening of
El Altet Airport
EL, El or el may refer to:
Religion
* El (deity), a Semitic word for "God"
People
* EL (rapper) (born 1983), stage name of Elorm Adablah, a Ghanaian rapper and sound engineer
* El DeBarge, music artist
* El Franco Lee (1949–2016), American po ...
in 1967.
University of Alicante is part of several networks:
European University Association
The European University Association (EUA) represents more than 800 institutions of higher education in 48 countries, providing them with a forum for cooperation and exchange of information on higher education and research policies. Members of th ...
,
Compostela Group of Universities
The Compostela Group of Universities (CGU) is an international non-profit association that promotes and executes collaboration projects between institutions of higher education. It currently has 67 full members, 2 associate members and 9 mutual me ...
(Spanish: ) and Catalan-speaking network
Xarxa Vives d'Universitats
The Xarxa Vives d'Universitats (, acronym: ''XVU''; English: "Vives Network"), formerly known as Institut Joan Lluís Vives (English: "Joan Lluís Vives Institute"), is the network of Catalan language universities.
XVU was founded in 1994 and it i ...
.
The university hosts
Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes
The Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library (MCVL; in es, Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, BVMC) is a large-scale digital library project, hosted and maintained by the University of Alicante in Alicante, Spain. It comprises the largest open-acc ...
. It is the largest
open-access
Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 definition), or libre op ...
repository of digitised
Spanish-language
Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a world language, global language with more than 500 millio ...
historical texts and literature from the
Ibero-American
Ibero-America ( es, Iberoamérica, pt, Ibero-América) or Iberian America is a region in the Americas comprising countries or territories where Spanish or Portuguese are predominant languages (usually former territories of Portugal or Spain). P ...
world.
Apertium
Apertium is a free/open-source rule-based machine translation platform. It is free software and released under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
Overview
Apertium is a shallow-transfer machine translation system, which uses finite s ...
, a
free software
Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, no ...
for
machine translation
Machine translation, sometimes referred to by the abbreviation MT (not to be confused with computer-aided translation, machine-aided human translation or interactive translation), is a sub-field of computational linguistics that investigates t ...
, is being developed at the university in cooperation with Spanish and Catalan governments. The software is distributed under
GNU GPL
The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general us ...
license.
Image:Campus università di Alicante.jpg, ''Drawing Space'' sculpture by Pepe Díaz Azorín
Image:UA-Aulario2.jpg, Amphitheatre
An amphitheatre (British English) or amphitheater (American English; both ) is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek ('), from ('), meaning "on both sides" or "around" and ...
of ''Aulario General II''
Image:UA-Eps.jpg, Sundial
A sundial is a horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the word, it consists of a flat ...
next to the building of Polytechnic School
Image:UniversityAlicanteCampus BibliotecaGeneral.JPG, University library
References
External links
University website (English, Spanish, Valencian)Cicerone UA - Virtual visit to the campus of the University of AlicanteBiblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes
{{coord, 38, 23, 4.7, N, 0, 30, 47.33, W, type:edu, display=title
Educational institutions established in 1979
1979 establishments in Spain
Universities and colleges in Spain