Rafael Landívar University ''(Universidad Rafael Landívar)'' is a private

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

coeducational higher education institution run by the

Society of Jesus , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

in Vista Hermosa III

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by Hon ...

. It was founded by the

Jesuits , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders = ...

in 1961. The main

campus A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a college campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls, student centers or dining halls, and park-li ...

is in Zone 16 of

Guatemala City Guatemala City ( es, Ciudad de Guatemala), known locally as Guatemala or Guate, is the capital and largest city of Guatemala, and the most populous urban area in Central America. The city is located in the south-central part of the country, ne ...

and is known as Vista Hermosa III. There are

satellite campus A satellite campus or branch campus or regional campus is a campus of a university or college that is physically at a distance from the original university or college area. This branch campus may be located in a different city, state, or coun ...

es in

Quetzaltenango Quetzaltenango (, also known by its Maya name Xelajú or Xela ) is both the seat of the namesake Department and municipality, in Guatemala. The city is located in a mountain valley at an elevation of above sea level at its lowest part. It m ...

Huehuetenango Huehuetenango () is a city and municipality in the highlands of western Guatemala. It is also the capital of the department of Huehuetenango. The city is situated from Guatemala City, and is the last departmental capital on the Pan-American High ...

Cobán Cobán ( kek, Kob'an), fully Santo Domingo de Cobán, is the Capital (political), capital of the Departments of Guatemala, department of Alta Verapaz in central Guatemala. It also serves as the administrative center for the surrounding Cobán mun ...

Zacapa Zacapa () is the departmental capital municipality of Zacapa Department, one of the 22 Departments of Guatemala. It is located approximately from Guatemala City. Sports Football club Deportivo Zacapa competes in Guatemala's top division and p ...

, and other parts of the country. Many recent Guatemalan presidents have studied at the university, including

Ramiro de León Carpio Ramiro de León Carpio (12 January 1942 – 16 April 2002) was the President of Guatemala from 6 June 1993 until 14 January 1996. Career De León studied law at the University of San Carlos and then at the Rafael Landívar University, wh ...

Álvaro Arzú Álvaro Enrique Arzú Yrigoyen (; 14 March 1946 – 27 April 2018) was a Guatemalan politician and businessman who served as the 32nd President of Guatemala from 14 January 1996 until 14 January 2000. He was elected Mayor of Guatemala City on ...

, and

Óscar Berger Óscar José Rafael Berger Perdomo (; born 11 August 1946) is a Guatemalan politician who served as the President of Guatemala from 2004 to 2008. Early years and family Berger was born to an upper-class family with large sugar and coffee hol ...

History

Rafael Landívar University was inaugurated on 22 January 1962 with 138 students, in the classrooms of Liceo Guatemala, lent to the Jesuits by the Marist Brothers. In July of that year the university moved to a corrugated roof facility in Zone 10 of Guatemala City, before moving to its present location in Zone 16. Campus

is in the southwest of the country, 200 km from the capital city, in a large valley surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, 2,334 meters above sea level. In 1992 the La Verapaz URL campus was opened on the premises of Coban College. In 1997 construction began on the present campus on the grounds of the Craft Education Center, with financial assistance from Spain – Basques, the University of Deusto, and the ALBOAN foundation. The new campus opened on 2 January 2000. In 2005, with funding from

KfW The KfW, which together with its subsidiaries DEG, KfW IPEX-Bank and FuB forms the KfW Bankengruppe ("banking group"), is a German state-owned investment and development bank, based in Frankfurt. As of 2014, it is the world's largest national d ...

German development bank, new classroom buildings and administrative and academic offices were built, along with creation of the Liceo Javier College of La Verapaz. Further support came from the Flemish Universities Network VLIR, Belgium. The Campus San Roque González de Santa Cruz SJ,

, opened in January 2000 on the premises of La Salle College Diversified, with the Bachelor of Law and Social Sciences, Master in Business Administration, and Bachelor of Social Work, with a technical focus for local development management. It was selected for scholarships by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (2003-2007) and KfW Bankengruppe Foundation in a grant-credit project mainly aimed at students of Mayan descent, fostering regional development and teacher training.

Regional Headquarters opened in 1977 with technical training in irrigation, union management, and social work. The following year business administration and social work with an emphasis on research and development management were added, along with agricultural sciences with an emphasis on horticulture. It enrolls about 1,500 students from Salama, Jalapa, Jutiapa, and Petén. In 2008 it acquired the status of Regional Campus under the name Regional Campus San Luis Gonzaga, SJ, of Zacapa.

Social responsibility

The university has a Department of Academic Social Responsibility whose function is to be a bridge between social groups in need and entities providing such assistance including disciplines at the university.

Academics

The university has the following schools: *

Architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...

and

design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design' ...

Agricultural Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peopl ...

and

environmental sciences Environmental science is an interdisciplinary academic field that integrates physics, biology, and geography (including ecology, chemistry, plant science, zoology, mineralogy, oceanography, limnology, soil science, geology and physi ...

* Health sciences *

Economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics anal ...

and

business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or buying and selling products (such as goods and services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for profit." Having a business name does not separ ...

* Law and

social science Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of s ...

s *

Political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and ...

s *

Humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at t ...

Engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

Theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing th ...

Activities

Activities at the main campus include: *Chess *

Athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competi ...

*Basketball *Baseball *Cheerleading *

Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

*Mountaineering *

Taekwondo ''Taekwondo'', ''Tae Kwon Do'' or ''Taekwon-Do'' (; ko, 태권도/跆拳道 ) is a Korean martial arts, Korean form of martial arts involving punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, spinning jump kicks, and fast k ...

*Table tennis *Volleyball *Beach volleyball

References

External links