University of Deusto

The University of Deusto (in Basque Deustuko Unibertsitatea) is a private university governed by the Society of Jesus, with two campuses, one in the Deusto district of the Bilbao, and another in San Sebastián, Basque Country (Spain), as well as two offices in Vitoria and Madrid.

Currently its rector is José María Guibert Ucín. It is the oldest private Spanish university, and one of the most prestigious and well-known. According to the "U-Ranking" Prepared by the Valencian Institute for Economic Research (IVIE) and the BBVA Foundation in 2015, the University of Deusto is the leader in the field of teaching among the main Spanish universities.

History

Old library in La Comercial.

It was founded in 1886 by the Society of Jesus as the University of the Church of Deusto. Its creation had the objective of providing the Basque Country with its own university center at a time of economic and industrial expansion. For this reason, Bilbao was chosen as the venue, whose port and commercial areas had undergone significant development since the mid-19th century. Since its foundation, the university has contributed to the industrial development of the Greater Bilbao region as well as the Basque Country as a whole.

One of the faculties with the greatest national projection is what became known as the "Deusto Commercial University", which began its journey in 1916. The students of the first promotion graduated with their own degree that was it advanced twenty-five years to the official recognition in Spain of studies in Economic Sciences. During the Second Republic, and due to the dissolution of the Society of Jesus and confiscation of its properties in Spain in 1932, the university is closed and reopened after the end of the Civil War. During the war, after the fall of Bilbao at the hands of the rebels, in June 1937 its facilities became the central and permanent part of a Francoist concentration camp that would remain active until December 1939.

The university spread to Guipúzcoa in 1956 with the opening of the Escuela Superior de Técnicos de Empresa in San Sebastián.

The 125th anniversary was celebrated in the 2011-2012 academic year with various academic and festive events. The opening of the academic year was presided over by the Chancellor of the Adolfo Nicolás Pachón University.

In 2018, the University of Deusto, after reaching a collaboration agreement with the Egibide educational center, inaugurated its headquarters in Vitoria, which is located in the Arriaga Institute building in the capital of Alava. With its opening, the university fulfilled its objective of being present in the three provinces of the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country.

Campus

Panoramic view of the entire university with its different campus faculties from the Iberdrola tower.

View of the San Sebastian campus.

The University of Deusto has two campuses, one in Bilbao (Vizcaya) and the other in San Sebastián (Guipúzcoa).

Representative buildings

The Bilbao Campus is made up of various buildings, including:

• The building The Literary, the oldest, where law studies are taught, with its own title Economic specialty.
• The building Commercial founded by the Vizcaine Aguirre Foundation, in which the Deusto Business School is located.
• The building of the Centennial (Annex to the Literary), where studies of Education Sciences, the careers of Social Education and Psychology, as well as the studies of Philology and History.
• The building of the Faculty of Engineering, dedicated to students of studies of New Technologies, such as Computer Engineering, Telecommunications, Automatic and Electronics, and Industrial Organization.
• Finally, the Center for Learning and Research Resources (CRAI) (Rafael Moneo), the headquarters of the university library, together with the Guggenheim Museum.

Educational centers

The university has 7 faculties and schools:

• Faculty of Law
• Faculty of Theology
• Faculty of Engineering
• Deusto Business School
• Faculty of Education and Sport
• Faculty of Social and Human Sciences
• Faculty of Health Sciences. It includes degrees of Psychology and those of Medicine and Physiotherapy. On October 31, 2019 it was ratified that the University of Deusto had achieved the favorable report of the Unibasq agency, responsible for authorizing the opening of new careers, to launch its medical faculty on the campus of Bilbao during the course 2020-2021. On September 11, 2020, the university presented the first promotion.

Research groups

Among the research groups of this university, the following stand out:

• Social Values Analysis
• Business competitiveness and economic development
• Development of Competitions and Values
• Deusto Institute of Technology - DeustoTech
• Ethics Applied to Social Reality
• Innova: Innovation and Evaluation in Higher Education
• European integration
• iScience: Internet and Sciencia
• Labpsico
• Communitarization of Private Law
• Social and Cultural Challenges of a World in Transformation
• Cognitive Vulnerability and Stress, among others.
• Neuro-e-Motion: Neuromuscular and neurodevelopment diseases.

Sports

The University of Deusto has its own sports facilities (soccer, basketball, tennis, etc.) where amateur and inter-university championships are organized. In addition, Deusto participates annually in the Engineers-Deusto Regatta.

Publications Service

The Publications Service of the University of Deusto is a member of the Euskadi Publishers Guild and the Union of Spanish University Presses. In 2007 he was awarded the 2007 National University Edition Award for "Best Catalog of Publications". His publications are grouped into six series, each one identified with a color:

• Green series: works of Philosophy, Psychology, Pedagogy, History, Letters, Linguistics, Archaeology, Theology and topics related to Euskal Herria.
• Garnet series: manuals, texts and reference materials related to Law, published in Spanish and in Basque, and Social Sciences.
• Yellow series: works of Economy and Engineering.
• Blue Series: works related to Ethics, Drogodepencias, Humanitarian Aid and Human Rights, as well as reflections produced by the meetings developed within the Forum Deusto
• Black Series: series dedicated to the Humanities, understood in a broad sense that brings together themes as diverse as art, advertising, comic, corporate social responsibility and the media.
• Gray: works on Leisure and Migration, teaching materials and periodicals, as well as works that are not accommodated in the above sections.

Among the works included in the editorial catalog of the University of Deusto are the New Latin-Spanish etymological dictionary and derivative words by Santiago Segura Mungía; the Dictionary of Hermeneutics by Andrés Ortiz-Osés or Contemporary Political Thought by Demetrio Velasco.

Members

Rectors

Details of the frontispiece.

The rector is the highest authority within the university. The first rector of the University of Deusto was Luis Martín García (course 1885-86). The last rectors to hold the position have been:

• 1971-1975: Pere Ferrer Pi.
• 1975-1977: Alberto Dou Mas de Xaxàs.
• 1977-1986: Dionisio Aranzadi Telleria.
• 1986-1996: Jesus Mary Eguiluz Ortuzar.
• 1996-2003: José María Abrego de Lacy.
• 2003-2013: Jaime Oraá Oraá.
• 2013-present: José María Guibert Ucín.

Faculty

Students