Studium Generale On May 20, 1293, the king
Sancho IV of Castile granted license to
archbishop of Toledo.
Gonzalo Pérez Gudiel to create a
Studium Generale (as the university studies were then called through Europe) in
Alcalá de Henares, "with the same frankness for teachers and students, which were granted to
General Study of Valladolid". These studies, although quite modest, survived through time to link with the Cisneros refoundation. On July 17, 1459
Pope Pius II granted a bull, requested by the archbishop
Alfonso Carrillo de Acuña, "for the erection of three Cathedras of Arts and Grammar in this study of Alcalá". These last chatedras, subsisting of that General Study of the 13th century, were integrated by Cisneros into the "new" university.
University In 1499,
Cardinal Cisneros founded a university in Alcalá de Henares. This university is known in historiography in different ways: Complutense University, Cisneriana University, University of Alcalá ... and reached, together with the
University of Salamanca, a pre-eminent place among the Castilian universities during the
Golden Age. However, it later entered a period of decline until in 1836 the government decreed its transfer to Madrid, renamed
Central University of Madrid. This, in 1970, adopted the name of
Complutense University of Madrid. The Complutense University of Madrid, in accordance with such historical trajectory, shows continuity with the university founded by Cisneros in 1499.
Colegio Mayor de San Ildefonso From its founding in 1499 by Cardinal Cisneros, the
Colegio Mayor de San Ildefonso functioned as the intellectual and symbolic center of the University of Alcalá, intended to cultivate Spain’s future scholars and administrators in theology, law, and governance. It quickly became the crown jewel of the Cisnerian system, both architecturally and institutionally, and served as a model for university reform throughout Spain. In 1666, it underwent a comprehensive institutional reorganization through the
royal reform of the Colegio Mayor de San Ildefonso.
Move to Madrid By a royal order of 29 October 1836, Queen Regent
Maria Christina ordered The university to move to Madrid, where they took the name of Literary University and, in 1851, the Central University of Madrid. The university would be known under this name until its original name of "Complutense" was restored in the 1970s.
Restoration In 1975, after years of the buildings passing between various businesses, Complutense University opened its Alcalá branch as a means to decongest its growing student population. In 1977, the university was re-founded as "the University of Alcalá de Henares," which later was shortened to "the University of Alcalá" in 1996. In 1998 Unesco named it a World Heritage site. Today's University of Alcalá preserves its traditional
humanities faculties, a testimony to the university's special efforts, past and present, to promote and diffuse the Spanish language through both its studies and the
Cervantes Prize, which is awarded annually by the King and Queen of Spain in the elegant sixteenth-century Paraninfo (Great Hall). The university has added to its time-honoured education in the humanities and social sciences new degree subjects in scientific fields such as health sciences or engineering, spread out across its different sites (the Alcalá Campus, the Science and Technology Campus,
Guadalajara and
Torrejón de Ardoz), all of which, together with the Science and Technology Park, are a key factor in its projection abroad, while also acting as a dynamo for activities in its local region. ==Spanish language programs==