• Providing excellence and quality
• History
• The campus
• Activities

Providing excellence and quality

One of the many things the city of León can boast about is, without a doubt, the magnificent University of León.

This university has the vigour passed down from the age and experience accumulated from the fine work of its predecessors, who for almost 200 years, gave university courses in Educational Training and Veterinary Science in our city.

A university, therefore, that is ready and willing to face the challenges of the new millennium, striving to provide excellence and quality in services to the university community and to society.

The university has two campuses (León and Ponferrada), teaching and research organisations (faculties, schools, departments and research institutes), its own systems of government and offers various degree subjects, PhD. programmes, specialist courses, Masters and first degrees.

History

Striving for a university

Throughout history, the province of León has always been concerned with cultural matters and there have been many great men of science and the arts among us.

However, León was for a long time without a university.

Although it had the Estudio de Sahagún (14th - 17th centuries), the city nevertheless fought to obtain the foundation of a university in the 16th century and again throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.

Although the attempt to obtain a university failed, León was relentless in its efforts and worked hard to achieve and develop several centres of learning.

These were set up independently of each other to cater for specific needs, and there was no plan or programme that could lead to the creation of the much-desired University.

This was how the Escuela Normal de Maestros or Seminario de Maestros de Instrucción Pública (Teacher Training College) came into being in 1843-44, and some time later the Escuela Subalterna de Veterinaria (Veterinary School) in 1852.

This solitary pair of non-aligned learning centres was joined in 1914 by the Escuela Elemental de Comercio (School of Commerce) after repeated requests by the local Chambers of Commerce. There was no further development until after the civil war.

The education reforms of 1943

With the education reforms of 1943, the Higher Veterinary School became a Faculty, but the middle and higher schools were left out of the University, so the veterinary school was the only one to maintain its university status.

The teachers there were responsible for the creation of the Biology Department (1961) which started up in 1968. Only one thing remained to be done: to convert it into a university department and, immediately afterwards, to try obtaining another university department, in order to complete the legal requirement that states three faculties are needed before a university can be established.

For a time, law was taught in the Veterinary Faculty building, which, for several years, also had courses of Mining and Metallurgy Techniques.

This was the forerunner of the present-day University School of Mining Engineering and that of the Agricultural Technicians (1963), which would become the University School of Agricultural Engineering.

Turning points and transitions

Educational reforms undertaken in 1969 and the General Education Law (1970), were the turning points that led the people of León and its academic, political and financial authorities to act.

The University College of León was created in 1972, first for the Arts, and then expanded to Law. The Biology Department became a Faculty in 1975.

The transition to democracy promoted the creation of new universities approved by parliament.

The law of 29/1979 saw the rise of the University of León, enriched by the University Schools of Industrial Engineering, and those attached to Nursing (maintained by the provincial council), Primary Teacher Training at Ponferrada and Social Work at León, both sponsored by the Catholic Church.

In the academic year of 96/97 classes began at the Ponferrada Campus in the building of the former hospital "Camino de Santiago" in Agricultural Engineering - Industry and Food, and Forestry.

The campus

•Rector’s office

This building is situated in the centre of the city in the former Veterinary Science building, now refurbished and modernised. It is home, now, to administrative services, the governing bodies and the Rector's office.

In addition, there are lecture theatres, exhibition halls, auditoriums and other facilities for congresses, conferences and various cultural activities.

A teacher's hall of residence completes the make-up of this remarkable building, which has been restored and kept in the city to offer the people of León all the cultural activities programmed by the University, as well as those put on by specific Faculties and Schools.

The inauguration of the final stage of remodelling of this spacious building took place with a glittering academic act, attended by the nine rectors, the provincial and local authorities, and those of the autonomous region, on 18th December 1989.

•Vegazana campus

Near the provincial capital is the village of Villaobispo de las Regueras and an estate at kilometre 3 on the Santander road, called "Vega" or "Huerta del Obispo", a relic of the former properties of the Bishop.

It was acquired by the Caja de Ahorros y Monte de Piedad de León, for what was modestly called the University Centre of León, at the same time as the first stone was laid for what would become the University College, now the seat of the Faculty of Arts.

The estate originally covered 24.7 hectares, to which were added other plots of land, plus the access from the district of La Palomera.

The first entrance from the district of San Mamés, across the meadows of La Palomera, originally gave the campus its name, but this was later changed back to the present one of Vegazana.

The campus started to fill up with the first phase of the Faculty of Biology, and the Faculty of Veterinary Science was erected to the north of the Biology building.

These buildings were laid out in a quadrangle which was completed by the Faculty of Law, with the cafeteria-dining hall and various university services situated in the centre of the four faculties.

Other buildings for the more modern housing of the former University Schools arose, plus new centres of learning that have increased the size of the University and shaped this fine campus.

•Ponferrada campus

Situated in the town of Ponferrada, at a 110 kilometres to the west of León, the Ponferrada Campus points to the future of the University of León.

It offers students very attractive degrees, such as a BSc (three-year course) in Forestry and Agriculture, Industry and Food, Nursing, Physiotherapy, or Cinema and the Visual Arts, which have access to state-of-the-art equipment and services.

The first classes were given in the academic year 96/97 in the former hospital "Camino de Santiago" building.

Activities