The ''Universidad Autónoma de Occidente'' ("Autonomous University of the West" or UAdeO) is a public institution of higher education in the state of

Sinaloa Sinaloa (), officially the (), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, compose the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 18 municipalities, and its capital city is Culiacán Rosales. It is located in northwest Mexic ...

. Its main campus is located in

Los Mochis Los Mochis () is a coastal city in northern Sinaloa, Mexico. It serves as the municipal seat of the municipality of Ahome. As of the 2010 census, the population was 362,613, which was 61 percent of the municipality's population. Los Mochis is th ...

, with units in

Culiacán Culiacán, officially Culiacán Rosales, is a city in northwestern Mexico, the capital and largest city of both Culiacán Municipality and the state of Sinaloa. The city was founded on 29 September 1531 by the Spanish conquistadors Lázaro de ...

, El Fuerte, Guamúchil, Guasave and

Mazatlán Mazatlán () is a city in the Mexican list of states of Mexico, state of Sinaloa. The city serves as the municipal seat for the surrounding , known as the Mazatlán Municipality. It is located on the Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast across from th ...

and extension centers at El Rosario and Escuinapa.

History

The first incarnation of the university was founded on January 10, 1974, as the ''Centro de Estudios Superiores de Occidente'' (Western Center of Higher Studies or CESO). In 1979, the Basic School of Engineering, located in Culiacán, began operations; a month later, the School of Agricultural Administration opened in Los Mochis. That year, the CESO agreed to propose to the SEP the name Universidad de Occidente. In 1980, work began to restructure the CESO along university lines under the leadership of Dr. Julio Ibarra Urrea, who had previously been the rector of the

Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa The Autonomous University of Sinaloa (''Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa'' or UAS) is a public university, public university with its central campus located in the state capital of Culiacán, Sinaloa and with campuses in multiple locations within ...

in the mid-1960s when it obtained its autonomy. On February 24, 1982, CESO formally became the ''Universidad de Occidente''. It was the second institution to take the name, after the original Universidad de Occidente, which existed from 1918 to 1922 in

. The succeeding decade saw several important milestones of university development, most notably the 1986 completion of the U de O campus in Los Mochis, known as Ciudad Universitaria (University City). In 1992, after years of planning and a change of location from Culiacán, XEUDO-AM 820, the university's radio station, signed on for the first time; it would move to FM in 2011. On January 25, 2018, Sinaloa's state legislature unanimously approved a new organic law that gave the university autonomy and consequently changed its name to ''Universidad Autónoma de Occidente''. The corresponding decree was published in the Sinaloa state gazette on February 21, 2018, making the UAdeO Sinaloa's second autonomous state university.

Educational programs

The UAdeO offers 18 undergraduate degrees, as well as six master's and three doctoral programs.

References

External links

* Universidad Autónoma de Occidente (Mexico) 1974 establishments in Mexico Universities and colleges in Sinaloa Public universities and colleges in Mexico {{Mexico-university-stub