University of Lisbon

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University of Lisbon
Universidade de Lisboa
University of Lisbon Logo
Latin: Universitas Olisiponensis
Motto: ad lucem
"To the Light"
Established: 1911
Type: Public University
Rector: António Sampaio da Nóvoa
Students: ca. 20,000
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Website: www.ul.pt

The University of Lisbon (Universidade de Lisboa, pron. IPA: [univɨɾsi'dad(ɨ) dɨ liʒ'boɐ]; latin Universitas Olisiponensis) is a public university in Lisbon, Portugal. It is composed by eight faculties. It was founded in 1911 after the fall of the Portuguese monarchy regime, but the history of a university in Lisbon goes back to the 13th century.

Contents

[edit] History

The first Portuguese university school was founded in 1290 by King Dinis in Lisbon, and was called Studium Generale (Estudo Geral). In the following 247 years, this first university school was moved several times between Lisbon and Coimbra. In 1537, during the reign of João III, the university moved definitively to Coimbra. The entire university institution, including the teaching staff and all the books from its library, were moved to Coimbra where the University of Coimbra was definitively installed. Lisbon became a university city again in 1911 when the current University of Lisbon was founded, through the union of newly created and older schools, like the 19th century Polytechnic School (Escola Politécnica), the Royal Medical School of Lisbon (Real Escola Médico-Cirúrgica de Lisboa) and the Letters Higher Studies (Curso Superior de Letras).

[edit] Faculties

[edit] Faculty of Law

The Faculty of Law (Portuguese: Faculdade de Direito) [1] was officially created by a Decree of March 22, 1911 as Faculdade de Ciências Económicas e Políticas, but was only installed in 1913, and was given its current designation later in 1918. It was originally located at the Valmor Building (Edifício Valmor) at the Campo dos Mártires da Pátria. It was transferred to its current campus at the University City (Cidade Universitária) in 1957-1958. A new building, housing the Faculty's library, was built in the late 1990s.

The only graduation given is law, and the specialized post-graduate studies available include several branches of the same area.

Among the many distinguished graduates from the Faculty of Law are the former Presidents of Portugal Jorge Sampaio and Mário Soares, Prime Minister Marcelo Caetano, the President of the European Commission José Manuel Durão Barroso, Portuguese statesman, deputy, and professor Adriano Moreira, and businessman and former Prime Minister Francisco Pinto Balsemão. First Republic political leader and several times Prime Minister Afonso Costa was a teacher at the Faculty. Television pundit and geopolitics expert Nuno Rogeiro also studied at the Faculty of Law (Faculdade de Direito).

[edit] Faculty of Sciences

Faculty of Sciences, C6 building. The Torre do Tombo tower is seen in the background
Faculty of Sciences, C6 building. The Torre do Tombo tower is seen in the background

The Faculty of Sciences (Portuguese: Faculdade de Ciências, usually abbreviated FCUL) [2] was created on April 19, 1911. From that date until 1985 (when it moved to its current grounds, at Campo Grande) it was established on the former Politechnical School (Escola Politécnica) building. Those former installations are now used as museum, now and then.

Its current grounds comprise a built area of 75662 square meters, corresponding to 8 buildings (labeled C1 through C8, where C stands for Ciências — Sciences) which host the classrooms, offices, cafeterias, libraries, book shop and leisure areas. The faculty population, as of the 2006–2007 school year, consisted of:

  • 3597 graduation students (3775);
  • 826 M.Sc. students (713);
  • 577 Ph.D. students (609);
  • 438 teachers, about 93% hold a Ph.D. (445, 80%);
  • 224 non-teaching workers (228).

(in parentheses, the numbers as of the 2005–2006 school year).[1]

The Computer Science department has been granted several honors, namely a finalist position in the Descartes Prize and two IBM Scientific Awards.

The faculty's campus also comprises the Instituto de Biofísica e Engenharia Biomédica (IBEB), the Instituto de Oceanografia and the Instituto de Ciência Aplicada e Tecnologia (ICAT).

There are 16 graduations available, in the following areas:

[edit] Faculty of Medicine

The Faculty of Medicine is a leading medical school, having its origins in the 19th century when the Real Escola Médico-Cirúrgica de Lisboa was founded in the city. Santa Maria's Hospital (Hospital de Santa Maria), one of the biggest Portuguese hospitals, is the teaching hospital of the faculty, and share the same installations.

António Damásio and Alexandre Carlos Caldas studied at this faculty, and Egas Moniz (a Nobel prize winner) was professor there.

Other noted personalities who studied at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon include:

[edit] Faculty of Letters

The Faculty of Letters (Portuguese: Faculdade de Letras), FLUL, [3] was created in 1911, although it's predated by the Superior Studies in Letters (Curso Superior de Letras), created in 1859 by King Pedro V, from which all students and professors were transferred.

It remained on the grounds of the Superior Studies, an annex to the Academy of Science until 1957, when it changed to the current building, in the University City (Cidade Universitária). In 1975, a new pavilion was built to accommodate the large influx of students who arrived after the democratization of Superior Education in Portugal, a consequence of the Carnation Revolution. The pavilion, theoretically provisional, still stands today. In 2001, two new buildings were finished: one to accommodate new classrooms and the Computer Room, and the Library Building, which is now the second biggest library in Portugal.

Although the faculty's graduation with most studies is Modern Languages and Literatures (Línguas e Literaturas Modernas) (which has a number of variants, including studies in Portuguese, Spanish, English, French, German and Italian), it also offers Geography, Philosophy, History (and Archeology), African Studies, European Studies, Cultural Studies and Classical Studies (the graduation itself is named Classic Languages and Literatures). It is also the former home of the graduation in Psychology. In the mid-80's a new Faculty of Psychology [4] was created to accommodate it.

Famous professors at the Faculty include the First President of the Portuguese Republic, Teófilo Braga and writers Vitorino Nemésio and Urbano Tavares Rodrigues.

The most famous former student, who attended for less then a year, is the poet Fernando Pessoa. Fialho Gouveia, a noted Portuguese television presenter, attended the Romance Philology course at the Faculdade de Letras but dropped out in order to follow a successful career in radio and television. The writer Luiz Pacheco was a student at FLUL before dropping out. Actress Alexandra Lencastre and Moonspell frontman Fernando Ribeiro also attended the Philosophy course but dropped out. Famous musician and composer Fernando Lopes-Graça also attended FLUL but have also dropped out.

[edit] Research

The Instituto de Medicina Molecular of the University of Lisbon, a research institute in molecular medicine, is one of the most noted biosciences research institutions in Portugal.

The Instituto Geofisico do Infante Dom Luiz exists since 1853 and is a research and operational unit that maintains the longest metereological series of Portugal. Research is organized and funded through CGUL, the leading Portuguese geophysical research unit, and Associated Laboratory (with LATTEX) of the Portuguese Ministry of Science and Technology.

Researchers of LaSIGE, a research laboratory for large-scale information systems (integrated into the Department of Computer Science), have received several honors, namely an IBM Scientific Award, an Order of Engineers distinction and a place among the eight finalists of the Descartes Prize.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Agenda FCUL

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Coordinates: 38°45′09″N, 9°09′32″W

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Public universities in Portugal