Comillas Pontifical University

Comillas Pontifical University (Spanish: Universidad Pontificia Comillas) is a private university located in Madrid, Spain. It is a Catholic institution run by the Society of Jesus. The university ranks 5th in Spain's best schools of law ranking by El Mundo, 4th in best industrial engineerins schools and 3rd in best social work schools. It is involved in a number of academic exchange programmes, work practice schemes and international projects with over 200 Higher Education Institutions in Europe, Latin America, North America and Asia.

Pope Leo XIII founded the Pontifical Seminary of Saint Anthony of Padua in 1890 in the town of Comillas (Cantabria, Spain) in response to efforts made by the Marquis of Comillas to build an institution for educating candidates to the priesthood. At the time of its foundation, the Seminary was entrusted to the Society of Jesus. In 1904, the Pontifical University was established when Pope Pius X granted the Seminary the power to confer academic degrees in Theology, Philosophy and Canon Law.

In 1969 the university was moved to Madrid, where its doors were opened to a wider range of students. In 1978 the Jesuits incorporated into the university their Madrid's higher education institution ICAI-ICADE, the resultant entity of the merge in 1960 of ICAI and ICADE, two institutes established in 1908 and 1956 respectively. They are today the ICAI School of Engineering, the ICADE School of Law and the ICADE School of Business and Economics.

Several other schools, like the San Juan de Dios School of Nursing, were incorporated later on, to reach the structure of 6 colleges and schools that the university has today:

• Facultad de Teología (Theological College)
• Facultad de Derecho Canónico (Canon Law College)
• Facultad de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales (Human and Social Sciences College)
• Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería ICAI (ICAI School of Engineering)
• Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales ICADE (ICADE School of Business and Economics)
• Facultad de Derecho ICADE (ICADE School of Law)
• Escuela Universitaria de Enfermería y Fisioterapia "San Juan de Dios" (San Juan de Dios School of Nursing and Physiotherapy)

In recent years, new study and research centres and institutes have been created (Institute for Research in Technology, Institute for Liberalism, Krausim and Freemasonry Research, Graduate Studies Institute, Institute for Educational Science, Institute for Migration Research, Faith and Secularism Institute, Law Innovation Center, Modern Language Institute, University Institute on the Family). [wikipedia]