A Max Planck Research Award winner
The president of the International Association of Penal Law
A Glenn H. Brown Prize laureate
The first woman in the world to complete the 14x8000ers
They are all professors, doctors or alumni of the University of the Basque Country, a publicly run educational institution that makes every effort to promote knowledge and research, consistently in pursuit of excellence.
45,000 students and a 5,000-membered academic staff form our dynamic and bilingual community. While teaching in Spanish is guaranteed in all programmes, no less than 35 % of our students choose to study in Basque: the only, isolated pre-Indo-European language still alive in Europe and cornerstone of our Basque culture. We are furthermore progressing in the establishment of English and French tuition.
The University of the Basque Country has been certified 'Campus of International Excellence' by the Spanish Ministry of Education. Alongside our fields of specialisation, projects carried out by our research groups result in largely positive numbers and statistics: we requested 171 patents in the last 5 years, have so far obtained an 11 million-euro income for transfer-originated activities and produced 1,586 articles in indexed journals in the last 12 months.
The University of the Basque Country is at the helm of Research, Development and Innovation in a region which stands out as one of the most prosperous in Europe. Our Three campuses are located in the main cities of the Basque Country: Vitoria-Gasteiz (administrative capital of the autonomous community), Bilbao (the biggest city in the region) and San Sebastian.
As the figurehead of our 31 Faculties and Schools, you will see our emblem, the 'Tree of knowledge' designed in 1981 by the remarkable Basque sculptor Eduardo Chillida. Our classrooms remain wide-open throughout the year for all-age students, from youngsters attending official degrees to pupils enrolled in our seniors-oriented programmes, from fall and winter semesters to high-summer months.
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Following our motto 'Give and spread knowledge', the University of the Basque Country is an integrating institution willing to produce knowledge, experience and research in order to forward them to the general public. Our teaching offer consists of 67 Bachelor´s Degrees in arts and humanities, sciences, technical spheres, health sciences and social sciences. Furthermore, 118 master courses, university expert diplomas or PhD studies can be followed by our graduate students. A total 32 graduate programmes have been granted a Quality Award by the Spanish Ministry of Education.
Urged by our commitment to permanently renovate and improve the quality of education, we are currently in the course of creating the International School of Graduate and PhD studies and we are implementing more cooperative and dynamic learning methods. We additionally want to expand a transformational culture, based on a creative and entrepreneurial spirit.
We believe in education as a means to not only acquire knowledge, but to furthermore arouse our students´ awareness of the world and develop precious skills both for career and life. Our surveyed graduates appraise, among the competences acquired while attending our institution: the improvement of their teamwork and leadership skills, the reinforcement of their decision-making and problem-solving ability and the unfolding of their creativivity.
Our Summer Courses, performed in Bilbao, Donostia-San Sebastián and Vitoria-Gasteiz, enjoy a notorious reputation and a great attendance success. 8,418 participants followed one of the hundred activities organised for the 10-week academic event. The number of international students has reached 475 in the last edition (2010). This valuable complement to our winter programmes deals with the latest economic, social, cultural and moral topics. Summer lessons are lectured by renowned professionals and experts from various countries around the world.
Inspired by our purpose to promote education throughout all ages of life, the University of the Basque Country created, 10 years ago, specific university programmes for seniors who had been unable to attend a higher education institution in their early days. Our Degree in Human Sciences aims to spread culture and knowledge and pay tribute to the generations whom we owe today´s economic and social welfare. During these 4-year studies, pupils are lectured on World History, Literature, Philosophy, Art, Nutrition & Diet, Health, Music, Law, Computers or Psychology. Most of our senior students first enrolled at the university for academic reasons; however, it was the human factor that encouraged them to stay connected to our institution. After their graduation, most trainees apply for our University Courses for Seniors, organise cultural and social events and attend a number of our official courses, thus mingling with our younger students.
The University of the Basque Country has been certified Campus of International Excellence by the Spanish Ministry of Education. Our Euskampus project, submitted in partnership with the Donostia International Physics Center and TECNALIA Technological Corporation, displays our priority specialisation areas, based on three axes:
The University of the Basque Country and its partners stimulate research, creativity and innovation with a view to help establish a new, sustainable economic and social model. We seek to extend our international influence working on a 'brain-gain' basis and establishing cross-border campuses. With a view to reinforce our services and boost technological platforms, our General Research Services Unit (SGIker) commands the acquisition and handling of all research-structures. The University of the Basque Country equally manages several advanced-groundwork centres: The Lucio Lascaray CIEA (Centre for Research and Advanced Studies in Vitoria-Gasteiz) is an innovative, energy efficient building hosting experimental and health sciences research groups; our D+D+I Korta Centre in Donostia-San Sebastián is the seat of the European Theoretical Spectroscopy Facility and the POLYMAT University Institute for Polymeric Materials. This campus also hosts the Material Physics Joint Centre, belonging to the University of the Basque Country and the CSIC; finally, our prospected Scientific Park in the Campus of Biscay will be the head office of intensive R+D groups, an enterprise incubator and other R+D+I activities support services.
These are, in brief, some of our figures:
The University of the Basque Country counts several reference and lending libraries where students and researchers can find extensive literature on all fields of knowledge. In the Leioa Central Library, Koldo Mitxelena, Carlos Santamaría and subsequent 16 libraries, over 1,000,000 volumes, 17,800 journals, 6,400 electronic journals, 88 specialized databases and over 10,000 videos can be tracked down by our community members.
The University of the Basque Country wishes to host an unrestricted and multicultural community. Our International Relations Office manages over 900 exchange agreements with other Spanish, European and International universities. Every year, our three campuses turn into lively melting pots where over 900 foreign students blend in with our local trainees. We take part in SICUE, the Spanish universities students´ exchange programme; ERASMUS, the most extended European mobility programme; and we furthermore have created our own exchange programmes with Latin-America (UPV/EHU-AMÉRICA LATINA) and other destinations (the USA, Canada, The Philipine Islands, New Zealand, Russia).
A number of our teaching staff travels to Central and Southern American universities in the frame of our PhD Studies Latin American Network and we are currently the coordinating institution of the Erasmus Mundus External Cooperation Windows 20B project, which will enable 149 mobilities between Central America, Mexico and Europe in order to complete their Bachelor´s Degrees, Master Courses or PhD studies.