The University's origins lie in the 15th century with the "Colegio de Pilotos de los Mares de Levante y Poniente". Its Faculty of Medicine traces its founding to the Royal Naval College of Surgery in 1748, which was the first in Europe to combine medicine and
surgery in a single school. The modern University of Cádiz was founded on October 30, 1979, with an inaugural session "
Cajal, análisis literario de un carácter" about
Ramón y Cajal and the first rector election was conducted in 1984. In March 1984, the Gold Medal was awarded to
Juan Carlos I of Spain. In May 1985,
Rafael Alberti and
Antonio Domínguez Ortiz were invested Doctor Honoris Causa. In this year, the rectorate is relocated to the current building,
Casa de los Cinco Gremios. University bylaws and statutes were approved in February 1986. In 1992,
Centro Andaluz Superior de Estudios Marinos was inaugurated in Campus of Puerto Real. Since 2003, UCA has promoted new technologies for learning-related purposes, first with
WebCT virtual campus and then
Moodle (free software). In 2009, the recently created "General Inspection of Exceptional Services" begun to make decisions which were severely reprobed by some intellectual authors, for it allows authorities the use of official means in order to arbitrarily punish teaching staff. == Campuses ==