The University of Cordoba was founded in 1972. The first project to provide Cordoba with a university dates back to the 16th century when St. John of Avila created in Cordoba general studies in grammar, art and philosophy.
During the reign of Joseph Bonaparte, when the Cordoban Patriotic Society, the fruit of the ideas brought by the Enlightenment at the end of the 18th century, made a new attempt to provide Cordoba with university studies, although it did not succeed.
Years later, in 1847, the Cordoba Veterinary School was founded, at that time dependent on Seville, and the seed of the current University. Also, in 1870, the Free University of Cordoba was created on the initiative of the Provincial Council.
The University of Cordoba was founded in 1972, and draws its inspiration precisely from these two previous institutions.
The UCO has 21,000 students, just over 1,200 professors and 700 employees and has become a University of high teaching quality and scientific solvency.
Studies at the University of Cordoba range from Humanities and Legal-Social Sciences to Health Sciences and scientific-technical degrees, three areas that correspond to its structure in three large campuses: the legal-social campus, integrated in the city centre; the Health campus, to the west of the capital, and the agri-food, scientific and technical campus of Rabanales, in the eastern area. In addition, the UCO has the Polytechnic School of Belmez, located sixty kilometres from the capital of Cordoba.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of this institution, Correos has issued a stamp featuring a beautiful illustration of the main façade of the University's Rectorate, which was once the headquarters of the Mudejar-style Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.
