About Salamanca University
Below you can find useful information and facts about Salamanca University including its history and details of its Spanish courses.
History and Facts about Salamanca University
Salamanca University is one of the oldest universities in Europe and was founded by the Spanish King Alfonse IX in 1218. 36 years later it was acknowledged by Pope Alexander IV and was meant to be one of the four great Universities of the world, along with the universities of Oxford, Paris and Bologna. During its many years of existence, Salamanca University has had many important teachers and students, including professors such as Luis de León, Beatriz de Galindo, Melchor Cano, Francisco de Vitoria and Miguel de Unamuno and students such as Miguel de Cervantes, Hernando Cortes and Christopher Columbus.
The university's golden period was during the 16th century when gold coming from conquest of South America was used to help finance its expansion; in 1584 reaching a student number of 6.778 students. In the 19th century the number of students dropped to only 412 and during this period the university was in serious risk of being shut down.
Initially Salamanca University had five official faculties; Canon Law, Law, Theology, Medicine and Arts-Philosophy, as well as complementary teaching in Humanities, Languages, Mathematics and Music. During the crisis in the 19th century, the faculties of the University were reduced to Law, Philosophy and Arts, and Theology, later being eliminated in 1868. In 1869 the local city council, pressured by the dean Miguel de Unamuno, decided to finance a Medicine and Sciences faculty.
Today the University of Salamanca has Faculties of Law, Arts, Humanities, Science and Medicine and, of course, Spanish Language Courses for foreigners.
With more than 30,000 students per year and more than 250 different programmes offered, it is still one of the most important universities in Spain.
Spanish Courses History
In 1929 Salamanca University started to offer Spanish language and culture courses to foreign students studying at the university. Later on, this was developed into a department specializing in this area, offering courses specifically for student coming to Salamanca to learn Spanish. Today more than 3.500 foreign students participate in the many different Spanish Language programs offered by the university.
The quality and experience of Salamanca University in arranging Spanish courses has been acknowledged by the Instituto Cervantes (the official governmental institution for the Spanish language). Salamanca University was assigned the task of preparing the yearly DELE exam papers, which is the official language exam for Spanish as a foreign language.
The Spanish courses take place in one of the traditional university buildings called 'Escuelas Menores', located right in the heart of the historic centre of Salamanca. This is a very nice Renaissance building with a magnificient patio, the interior having been renovated to modern standards.
