# University of Huelva

The University of Huelva (UHU) is a public university in Huelva, Spain. It was founded in 1993. It is included in the campus of international excellence.
The university offers undergraduate degrees, postgraduate degrees, and doctoral programs across a wide range of fields, including arts and humanities, engineering and technology, health sciences, natural sciences, and social sciences.

## History

Depending on the University of Seville, different provincial entities had been calling for segregation for years. In 1987, the La Rábida School Center Board had already called for the creation of independent faculties for the city. But it was in 1988 when a powerful local movement was developed that called for the creation of its own entity in Huelva. These movements had their climax on March 3rd, with a general strike in the capital widely followed and a final rally in the Plaza de las Monjas (Huelva). In July they managed to use the old Hospital of La Merced, annexed to the Cathedral as a space for the future university and the agreement for the creation of the first two faculties was signed, not until two years later when the third was signed. That same year, the University Board of Trustees (Patronato Universitario) was established with the approval of the institutions and both the Provincial Council of Huelva (Diputación Provincial de Huelva) and the City Council of Huelva (Ayuntamiento de Huelva) agree in their plenary sessions to apply for a university. On December 12, the Parliament of Andalusia approved this request, recognizing already in May its future creation for 1992.
Finally, one year behind the initial plans, it was segregated from Seville on 1 July 1993. The first President of the Management Commission was Francisco Ruiz Berraquero. His first elected rector was Ramírez de Verger,4 the current rector being María Antonia Peña Guerrero. With 11,251 students in the 2017/2018 academic year, 816 teachers, 37 degrees and 23 doctoral programs in recent years, the number of ERASMUS and non-ERASMUS students from the province has increased substantially.

## Campus

The University of Huelva is subdivided into different zones or university campuses:
La Merced. Former 15th century Mercedarian convent and more recently hospital, adjacent to the cathedral. It is the faculty at the city center.
Cantero Cuadrado. Old School of Teaching since the 60s, which was the germ of the university when it was dependent on the University of Seville. It currently functions as an administrative headquarters.
Campus Universitario del Carmen. Located in the former infantry barracks, which was based on the recovery of the military barracks converted into educational facilities. Today, it is the most modern complex and unites most of the university's faculties. Its Rectorate is located in the building of the Campus of Cantero Cuadrado.
Former Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería de la Rábida. Located just before La Rábida, it began its history with the Schools of Mines and Forestry, which were later joined by the Industrial, Agricultural and IT Engineer. The secondary school Prof. Vicente Rodríguez Casado is also located on the campus.

## Faculties

The faculties and schools are responsible for organizing the teaching of the various degrees issued by the University. The different schools and faculties of the university are:
* Higher Technical School of Engineering
* Faculty of Social Work
* Faculty of Nursing
* Faculty of Education, Psychology and Sports Sciences
* Faculty of Labor Sciences
* Faculty of Business
* Faculty of Experimental Sciences
* Faculty of Law
* Faculty of Humanities
* Environmental biology and public health
* Agroforestry Science
* Public law
* Integrated Didactics
* Business Management and Marketing
* General economics and statistics
* Financial economics, accounting and operations management
* Pedagogy
* English philology
* Philology
* Physics Applied
* Geology
* Geodynamics and paleontology
* History, Geography and Anthropology
* Design and project engineering
* Electrical and thermal engineering
* Electronic, computer system and automatic engineering
* Chemical, chemical and physical engineering and organic chemistry
* Mining, mechanical and energy engineering
* Mathematics
* Psychology
* Chemistry and materials science
* Sociology and social work
* Information Technologies

## Erasmus Students (International Students)

A total of 685 students (per semester) from around thirty countries come to Huelva to study academics attracted by the teaching offer in UHU.
This number of Erasmus students places Huelva among the 50 best universities in Europe in receiving Erasmus students. In addition to the classic nationalities, the University of Huelva has students from China. There is also great acceptance in Latin America, as well as an exponential increase in students from the United States who have joined this program. The university receives more than 30 different nationalities from 4 different continents each semester.
The University of Huelva has a great reputation internationally, as proof of this the SEPIE has awarded the Erasmus Quality Award 2016 to the best Spanish university in this program. This recognition is based on the successful implementation of the mobility project in terms of impact, transferability, innovation, communication and financial execution. The program is no longer just reduced to European students but has opened to Erasmus Plus, “a global exchange” that has made possible the arrival of “students, teachers and technicians from countries like China or Morocco”, and “for the 2017/18 academic year for the first time Albania”.
One of the most important aspects of the Erasmus program in Huelva is the language offer to its foreign students. Erasmus students receive free Spanish (Castilian Spanish) classes from levels A1 to C1, because they have Spanish as part of their study contract. Then, between May and June, they have the possibility to take the official accreditation test. In addition, these students can access the accreditation of other languages offered by the university (English, Italian and German).
UHU has more than 57 subjects in another language, one of the main advantages of the university when it comes to attracting Erasmus students. One of the objectives of the University of Huelva, through its internationalization plan, is the implementation of degrees offered entirely in foreign languages that favor not only the arrival of students from other countries but also the internationalization of their own students.