Abat Oliba CEU University

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Abat Oliba CEU University (official name: Universitat Abat Oliba CEU; UAO CEU) is a private university located in Barcelona, Spain. It was founded in 1973 as the Abat Oliba College. In 2003, the Parliament of Catalonia approved its conversion to Abat Oliba CEU University. The university adopts the name of Abbot Oliba, Count of Berga and Ripoll, bishop of Vic, and founder of Montserrat because "aimed at making its spirit who established a thousand years the foundations of emerging Catalonia based on Roman and Christian culture". Abbot Oliba is considered a key figure in the repopulation of Catalonia based on Roman and Christian culture, and political pacifism and his assemblies of Peace and Truce of God laid the groundwork for one of the first parliaments in Europe. It is one of the three Spanish universities belonging to the Centro de Estudios Universitarios CEU educational group. It belongs to the Catholic Association of Propagandists, an institution created in 1908 by the Jesuit priest Ángel Ayala. The main campus of the UAO CEU is the Bellesguard Campus, in the district of Sarrià-Sant Gervasi. The architect Miquel Àngel Armengou, based in Barcelona, designed and built the university around the church at its centre

The origin of the current university is in the CDES Abat Oliba, an institution created by Fundación San Pablo-CEU in 1973 in Barcelona. The center started its activities in January 1974 through an affiliation agreement with the University of Barcelona. In 1995 it became known as the Center for Higher Education Abat Oliba and offered degrees in Law, Business Administration and Management, and Economy. In 2003, the Parliament of Catalonia recognized Abat Oliba CEU University as a new university. In 1992 he acquired the complex built by the modernist architect Bernardí Martorell at the behest of the benefactor Francesca Balart, to convert it into its current headquarters, which opened in 1995. That same year, coinciding with the refurbishment by the architect Miquel Àngel Armengou, it was renamed the Abat Oliba Higher Education Centre, incorporating university studies in Law, Business Administration and Management and the first cycle of Economics. Eight years later, in 2003, the Abat Oliba CEU University is recognised by Law 20/2003, of 4 July 2003, of the Parliament of Catalonia. It thus becomes one of the three Spanish universities belonging to the CEU educational group. The spring of 2007 saw the birth of the Goliad UAO CEU Awards, prizes given annually by the advertising and communication students of the Abat Oliba CEU University. In 2012 the institution started an annual conferenced titled UAO CEU International Journalism Week, lasting an entire week (Monday to Friday), and hosting presentations by professionals and scholars of Journalism. Also in 2012, the Abat Oliba CEU University and the totality of the Catalan universities pledged to defend the Catalan linguistic immersion model and proposed a coordinated access to the Catalan university system. The university's rectors since then have been: Juan Corona Ramón (2003–2004) José María Alsina Roca (2004–2009); Carlos Pérez del Valle (2009–2017), Eva Perea (2017-2018), Rafael Rodriguez-Ponga y Salamanca (2019-2024) and Arcadi Gual Sala (since 2024).

The UAO CEU has a tripartite structure of three faculties: the Faculty of Law and Business, whose dean is Dr María Jesús Pesqueira Zamora; the Faculty of Communication, Education and Humanities, whose dean is Dr Enrique Martínez García, and the Faculty of Psychology, whose dean is Dr Martín Echevarría. They offer undergraduate, master's and postgraduate degrees in the areas of Communication, Law and Political Science, Education, Business and Economics, Humanities and Psychology. In 2017 Unesco awarded the UAO CEU the Chair of Peace, Solidarity and Intercultural Dialogue, to promote a comprehensive concept of peace. This Chair is joined by the Chair of Family Business and Business Creation; the Chair in the Solidarity Economy; the Gift & Task Chair in Bioethics and Law; the Rey Martín El Humano, Count of Barcelona Chair; and in 2019, coinciding with the commemoration of the 500th anniversary, the CEU Elcano - First Journey Around the World Chair. 2020 saw the creation of the Antonio de Montserrat Chair of Global Studies and the Jean Monnet Chair on Fiscal Integration in the European Union, financed with European competitive funds from the Erasmus+ call for Jean Monnet activities. There is also the Labour Observatory, dedicated to current issues in the world of work, and the Institute of Health Sciences. UAO CEU has six research groups: MULTICULTCOM (Communication and Conflict in a Multicultural Society), TRIVIUM (Family, Education and Inclusive Schooling), EAEDIUM (Applied Economics, Economics of Education and Market Research), EJES (Employability, Youth and Social Exclusion), GREFE (Family Business and Entrepreneurship) and PROSOPON (Person and Personal Life). The UAO CEU is part of the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE); the Vives Network of Universities, whose presidency it held for the 2019–2020 period; as well as the European Association for International Education and the International Council of Universities of Saint Thomas Aquinas. In 2020, the university joined the European Federation of Catholic Universities and the International Platform for Cooperation and Migration. It is part of the CEU educational group and is one of three CEU Universities.

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.