Founded in 1218 by King Alphonsus IX of Leon, we are one of the oldest universities in Europe and has been an academic point of reference throughout its almost 800 years of existence, taking in uncountable generations of students from all parts of the globe.
The University reached its maximum splendour in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, when it became the centre of a worldwide debate on human rights. Its Senate argued about Columbus’s project, and once American had been discovered, it argued about the right of indigenous peoples to have their rights fully recognized. It also had among its students what were probably the first women university students in the world, one of whom was the first to teach in a university
Today the University of Salamanca upholds its academic and research excellence, and together with other European universities is in a process of adapting its teachings to the new “European Higher Education Area”, which seeks to place the student at the centre of learning.
