The University of Panama () is a public university in
Panama City
Panama City, also known as Panama, is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has a total population of 1,086,990, with over 2,100,000 in its metropolitan area. The city is located at the Pacific Ocean, Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, i ...
,
Panama
Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...
. It was founded on October 7, 1935. Initially, it had 175 students learning education, commerce, natural sciences, pharmacy, pre-engineering or law. , it had 74,059 students distributed in 228 buildings across the country.
The University of Panama was founded by Octavio Méndez Pereira, who also served as the university's first president.
History
The University of Panama was created by presidential decree on May 29, 1935, during the administration of President
Harmodio Arias Madrid. The university began operations on October 7 of the same year in one of the wings of the Instituto Nacional (National Institute). Later on, under the administration of
Enrique A. Jiménez, the government purchased around 60 hectares of land in the neighborhood of El Cangrejo, which would eventually become the university's main campus.
Construction began in January 1948 under the supervision of Alberto De Saint Malo, who was the Dean of the Engineering and Architecture Faculty at the time. The first four buildings to be constructed were home to the Humanities, Engineering and Architecture faculties and Science laboratories, and the Administration and Library. Classes in the new buildings began on May 29, 1950. The campus was officially inaugurated on November 1, 1953. In the 1950s, construction continued and 11 additional buildings were built, which would hold the Biochemistry Center, and the Faculties of Pharmacy, and Public Administration and Commerce. In the following decade, 15 more buildings were constructed, among of which house the Odontology and Law Faculties, and the Experimental Center for Agricultural Research in Tocumen.
Between 1970 and 1980, the buildings that were used for Biology, Architecture, Engineering, Humanities (other), the Simón Bolivar Library and Laboratory of Specialized Analysis were finished. At the end of 1979, the University of Panama received the facilities of the Rainbow City High School in
Colón, where the first of the university's Regional Centers would begin operations. In the following decade, the Regional Centers for the provinces of
Veraguas
Veraguas () is a province of Panama, located in the centre-west of the country. The capital is the city of Santiago de Veraguas. It is the only Panamanian province to border both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It covers an area of 10,587.6&n ...
,
Chiriquí and
Coclé, and for the region of
Azuero were built, including an Agricultural Sciences Faculty in Chiriquí.
In the 1990s, the Regional Center for Panamá Oeste (Western Panama) and four buildings for research were constructed. In 1999, the ARI (Interoceanic Regional Authority), the Panamanian government agency once responsible for the management of the land of the former Panama Canal Zone, transferred the buildings of the former Curundu Junior High School to the University of Panama. This complex would later become the Harmodio Arias Madrid Campus. Other facilities transferred were the ones later used for the Veterinary Hospital, in
Corozal. Also during this time, the university expanded its number of buildings by adding 19 more, thanks to the acquisition of adjacent buildings and to the construction of the Regional Center in
Bocas del Toro, the extensions of
Chepo and
Darién, and the popular universities of Azuero and Coclé, today known as Universidades del Trabajo y La Tercera Edad (Universities of Labor and Elders).
On 7 June 2024, two unidentified gunmen fired on a group of six first-year agricultural science students doing field work at the university's rural campus in Veraguas, killing one student and injuring another.
Achievements
Several international research agreements and personnel exchanges have been made by government agencies with the institution. Professors in areas of science and technology, medical health, economics and law have been invited to give keynotes and also teach in other campuses around the world. The University of Panama has also sent representatives to several international congresses and meetings such as Women and Gender,
World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental organization, international advocacy non-governmental organization and think tank, based in Cologny, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German ...
, environmental congresses, biological research meetings, and statistics congresses.
It is currently positioned at #1 in the best universities in Panama.
Faculties
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Public Administration
Public administration, or public policy and administration refers to "the management of public programs", or the "translation of politics into the reality that citizens see every day",Kettl, Donald and James Fessler. 2009. ''The Politics of the ...
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Business Administration
Business administration is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization.
Overview
The administration of a business includes the performance o ...
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Architecture
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...
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Fine Arts
In European academic traditions, fine art (or, fine arts) is made primarily for aesthetics or creativity, creative expression, distinguishing it from popular art, decorative art or applied art, which also either serve some practical function ...
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Agricultural Sciences
Agricultural science (or agriscience for short) is a broad multidisciplinary field of biology that encompasses the parts of exact, natural, economic and social sciences that are used in the practice and understanding of agriculture. Professiona ...
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Education
Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...
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Natural Sciences
Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...
and
Technology
Technology is the application of Conceptual model, conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible too ...
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Communications
Communication is commonly defined as the transmission of information. Its precise definition is disputed and there are disagreements about whether Intention, unintentional or failed transmissions are included and whether communication not onl ...
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Law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...
and
Political Science
Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...
s
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Economics
Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...
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Nursing
Nursing is a health care profession that "integrates the art and science of caring and focuses on the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and human functioning; prevention of illness and injury; facilitation of healing; and alle ...
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Pharmacy
Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medication, medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it ...
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Humanities
Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture, including Philosophy, certain fundamental questions asked by humans. During the Renaissance, the term "humanities" referred to the study of classical literature a ...
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Computer Science
Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...
,
Electronics
Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other Electric charge, electrically charged particles. It is a subfield ...
and Communication
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Medicine
Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...
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Veterinary Medicine
Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, management, medical diagnosis, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, disorder, and injury in non-human animals. The scope of veterinary medicine is wide, covering all a ...
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Odontology
Dentistry, also known as dental medicine and oral medicine, is the branch of medicine focused on the teeth, gums, and mouth. It consists of the study, diagnosis, prevention, management, and treatment of diseases, disorders, and conditions of ...
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Psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...
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Graphic Design
Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art that involves creating visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdisciplinary branch of ...
Notable faculty
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Noris Salazar Allen (born 1947), bryologist
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Panama, University of
Buildings and structures in Panama City
Education in Panama City
Universities and colleges established in 1935
Forestry education
Members of the International Council for Science
Universities in Panama
Members of the International Science Council
1935 establishments in Panama