The Catholic University of Uruguay is the first private university in the country and the most geographically widespread.
The UCU is an institution entrusted to the Society of Jesus and is part of the world network of Jesuit universities. The UCU was established in 1985 with the mission of being a pluralistic, humanistic higher education institution open to the world, committed to excellence and to the work of creating a more inclusive and fair society.
Since its founding, the UCU has expanded in the territory. Today it has a unique urban campus in the country that adds value to Montevideo’s La Blanqueada neighborhood; the UCU harmoniously integrated into its environment until it became a point of reference that confers identity on the area. In addition, the UCU is has campuses in Salto and Punta del Este, two strategic cities in our country.
Year after year, the UCU seeks to increase its academic quality without losing sight of the fact that the student must always be at the center. At the UCU, students direct their own learning and, in addition to choosing from among more than 40 degree programs, they can take a minor that will allow them to acquire skills in areas related to their training or that complement their primary profession with disciplines that present new perspectives. Students also can choose to spend a semester or an exchange year at more than 300 foreign universities with which the UCU has collaboration agreements. On the other hand, the UCU is a university with a strong focus on humanities; the UCU Core is a set of courses that seek to promote and facilitate a humanistic, creative, innovative, and critical culture. It consists of almost 30 courses that students must take during their degree and which are organized into the following thematic cores: Anthropology and Philosophy, Ethics and Citizenship, and Society and Religion.
The UCU also has more than 40 postgraduate programs offered through the UCU Business School and the Graduate School; its programs seek to promote understanding of the social and economic transformations faced by Uruguay and the world.
In addition to being a teaching university, the UCU is also a research university. With 12 departments and more than 60 researchers in the National System of Researchers, the UCU is an authoritative voice when it comes to generating knowledge in fields such as Social Sciences, Education, Humanities, Engineering, Neurosciences and Psychology.
At UCU there are several centers designed to foster innovation and creativity and also to provide essential tools for the everyday life of students and the community as a whole. There is IthaKa, a center for entrepreneurship; Ludus, the teacher training center; Ignis, the audiovisual center; Ágora, the center that brings together information, writing and publication services of the entire University; Hodos, the methodological center that supports the research of students who want to pursue an academic career; Practicum, the center specially designed to articulate training practices for undergraduate and postgraduate students in organizations; and Berit, the center which addresses problems of inequality and vulnerability.
In its almost 40 years of life, the UCU has become a university that gives everyone who passes through its classrooms, corridors and common spaces a strong sense of belonging and deep understanding of the UCU ethos.
As our vision says, there is our lighthouse: to be an attractive and challenging ethos that invites the entire university community to live a human and academic experience with a unique seal, the UCU seal.