University of Cadiz

The University of Cádiz (in Spanish: Universidad de Cádiz), commonly referred to as UCA, is a public university located in the province of Cádiz, Andalusia, Spain, noted for its medicine and marine sciences curricula. It was founded in 1979, and has the Latin motto Non Plus Ultra ("No Further Beyond"). Its headquarters are located in Cádiz, where the Rectorate is. During the 2007/2008 academic year, there were 17,280 students, 1698 lecturers, and 680 administration and services workers associated with the university.

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.