The University of Buenos Aires (, UBA) is a
public
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...
research university
A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are "the key sites of Knowledge production modes, knowledge production", along with "intergenerational ...
in
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...
, Argentina. It is the second-oldest university in the country, and the largest university of the country by enrollment. Established in 1821, the UBA has educated 17
Argentine presidents, produced four of the country's five
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...
laureates, and is responsible for approximately 40% of the country's research output.
The university's academic strength and regional leadership make it attractive to many international students, especially at the postgraduate level. Just over 4 percent of undergraduates are foreigners, while 15 percent of postgraduate students come from abroad. The
Faculty of Economic Sciences has the highest rate of international postgraduate students at 30 percent, in line with its reputation as a "top business school with significant international influence."
The University of Buenos Aires enrolls more than 328,000 students and is organized into 13 independent faculties. It administers 6 hospitals, 16 museums, 13 scientific institutes, interdisciplinary commissions, 5 high schools, the
Ricardo Rojas Cultural Center, the
Cosmos Cinema, the University of Buenos Aires Symphony Orchestra, and
Eudeba (''Editorial Universitaria de Buenos Aires''), the country's largest university press.
Since 1949, all of the undergraduate programs at the University of Buenos Aires are free of charge for everyone, regardless of nationality. Tuition from postgraduate programs helps fund the UBA's social mission to provide free university education for all.
History
Early years
Unlike other major cities in the
Spanish Colonial Americas, Buenos Aires did not count with a university of its own during colonial times. The
Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata
The Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata or Viceroyalty of Buenos Aires ( or Virreinato de Buenos Aires or ) meaning "River of the Silver", also called the "Viceroyalty of River Plate" in some scholarly writings, in southern South America, was ...
was relatively less important compared to other regions in Spanish South America, as most economic activity was based around the
Andes range
The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long and wide (widest between 18°S ...
. Cultural and educational work in Buenos Aires was carried out by members of the
Company of Jesus, and within the viceroyalty,
Córdoba,
Chuquisaca, and
Santiago de Chile
Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital city, capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's Chilean Central Valley, central valley and is the center ...
already counted with universities.
Following the
May Revolution
The May Revolution () was a week-long series of events that took place from 18 to 25 May 1810, in Buenos Aires, capital of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. This Spanish colony included roughly the territories of present-day Argentina, ...
in 1810 and Argentina's
Declaration of Independence
A declaration of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the territory of another state or failed state, or are breaka ...
in 1816, the push for a university in the capital of the newly independent nation strengthened. On 12 August 1821, the University of Buenos Aires was officially founded through a decree by
Governor
A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...
Martín Rodríguez. At the university's inaugural act, the cleric and statesman
Antonio Sáenz
Antonio Sáenz (June 6, 1780 – July 22, 1825) was an Argentina, Argentine statesman, educator and cleric. He was a representative to the Congress of Tucumán of July 9, 1816, which Argentine Declaration of Independence, declared the Independ ...
was appointed as the first Rector.
During the university's early years of existence, the conflict between proponents of a
laicist approach to the university's education and defendants of the traditional religious approach divided students and professors alike. From the start, existing institutions were merged into the university in order to guarantee a high level of professionalism and organization: courses on mathematics, drawing, nautic sciences and natural history were transferred from the Consulate of Buenos Aires, the Military Medical Institute and the Colegio de la Unión del Sud. In addition, law professors and courses were incorporated from the Academia de Jurisprudencia. This allowed the university to begin imparting medicine and law degrees from the moment of its foundation.
Developments in the mid-19th century
Free access to the university was suspended during the rule of ''caudillo''
Juan Manuel de Rosas
Juan Manuel José Domingo Ortiz de Rozas y López de Osornio (30 March 1793 – 14 March 1877), nicknamed "Restorer of the Laws", was an Argentine politician and army officer who ruled Buenos Aires Province and briefly the Argentine Confedera ...
, and the number of students decreased considerably. Budget cuts imposed by Rosas's government meant professors were no longer being paid, and the Department of Exact Sciences was nearly forced to close down. During this period,
Francisco Javier Muñiz began making the first strides in the field of
paleontology
Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure ge ...
in Argentina, and became dean of the
Faculty of Medicine
A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, professional school, or forms a part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, ...
. The situation normalized following the fall of Rosas at the
Battle of Caseros in 1852. The new government of the
State of Buenos Aires
The State of Buenos Aires () was a secessionist republic resulting from the overthrow of the Argentine Confederation government in the Province of Buenos Aires on 11 September 1852. The State of Buenos Aires was never explicitly recognized b ...
made bettering the university's conditions a priority; the political elites began seeing higher education as a necessary part of the country's upcoming consolidation and stabilization stages.
In 1863, the university established the
Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires; the
Escuela Superior de Comercio followed in 1890. In 1869, the first twelve Argentine engineers graduated from the University of Buenos Aires; they would henceforth be known as the "Twelve Apostles". Among them was Valentín Balbín, who would become president of the Sociedad Científica Argentina. In 1891, the department of natural sciences took the name of
Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales, and, in 1896, a special doctorate for chemistry was also established. By 1909, UBA had also created the faculties of Agronomy and Veterinary Sciences, as well as the Instituto de Altos Estudios Comerciales y de Ciencias Económicas.
The federalization of Buenos Aires in 1881 made the university dependent of the Argentine national state. During the
Generation of '80, a period marked by the conservative elitism of Argentina's political class, the University of Buenos Aires made great progress in its scientific research, as the governing elites followed the ideals of
positivism
Positivism is a philosophical school that holds that all genuine knowledge is either true by definition or positivemeaning '' a posteriori'' facts derived by reason and logic from sensory experience.John J. Macionis, Linda M. Gerber, ''Soci ...
and
scientificism popular in the late 19th century. The 1880s were also marked by the university's first women graduates,
Élida Passo (pharmacy) and
Cecilia Grierson (medicine). These were, however, still exceptions to the rule in an otherwise male-dominated environment, as it fit the customs of Argentine society at the time.
University Reform of 1918
The newfound prosperity experienced by Argentina at the turn of the 20th century allowed the children of (primarily European) immigrants, the new Argentine middle class, to attend university for the first time. In June 1918, a political and cultural movement impulsed by students at the
National University of Córdoba caused a shockwave across Latin America: students were now protesting for further autonomy in universities, democratically elected authorities and co-governance, and open contests for teaching positions. The reform set up the freedom for universities to define their own curriculum and manage their own budget without interference from the central government. This has had a profound effect on academic life at the universities through the nationalization process that boasts academic freedom and independence throughout university life.
The University Reform granted UBA (as well as all other public universities in Argentina) one of the key features of its institutional life, maintained up to this day: co-governed, democratically elected institutions and authorities.
In 1923,
Ernesto de la Cárcova, a fine arts painter and academic professor, created the Extension Department of Fine Arts Education, known as the Superior Art School of the Nation in Spanish "Escuela Nacional Superior de las Artes", previously guilded in 1905 as the National Academy of Fine Arts in 1905, taking its long origins from the 1875 founding of the National Society of the Stimulus of the Arts by painters
Eduardo Schiaffino,
Eduardo Sívori, and others. Since 1993, this Arts Extension Department became an independent institution known as IUNA Instituto Universitario Nacional de las Artes, then, in 2014 became the Collegiate University
UNA Universidad Nacional de las Artes.
1940s–1960s
The university's co-governance and autonomy were suspended during the presidency of
Juan Domingo Perón, beginning in 1946. Perón's government also made access to public universities completely free of cost, through Decree 29.337, in November 1949. This represented the beginning of unrestricted access to culture, higher education and professionalization for the working class. From 1935 to 1955, the number of students enrolled at UBA grew from 12,000 to 71,823.
The 1940s also saw the creation of the
Faculty of Dentistry and the
Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, both through laws passed through the
National Congress.
[
]
The 1955 ''Revolución Libertadora'' re-established the university's autonomy and co-governance, but also persecuted peronists and leftists within the university, leading to the expulsion and exile of hundreds of professors. Blacklists for university professors were established, and UBA was among the most affected institutions. Further repression and persecution followed during the dictatorship of Juan Carlos Onganía, which intervened all universities and applied censorship
Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governmen ...
to much of the universities' contents. On 29 July 1966, following a student-led occupation of five of UBA's faculties, state authorities dislodged the legitimately-elected authorities of said faculties and violently removed students, graduates and professors from the premises. The students were protesting the 1966 coup d'état, which had deposed constitutional president Arturo Illia. The event would be known as the Night of the Long Batons ().
The Night of the Long Batons ended with over 400 people detained, and several laboratories and libraries destroyed by state authorities. In the months that followed, hundreds of professors were fired or forced to leave their positions. Many went into exile: in total, it is estimated 301 professors, of which 215 were researchers, left Argentina following the events of 29 July 1966.
1970s
The return of Juan Domingo Perón to power through democratic elections in 1973 marked the beginning of a new age for the University of Buenos Aires. In 1974, a new law (Ley 20.654) mandated all national and public universities' right to academic autonomy and administrative and economy autarky. In contradiction with the university autonomy law, Perón's wife and successor, Isabel Perón
Isabel Martínez de Perón (, born María Estela Martínez Cartas; 4 February 1931) is an Argentine politician who served as the 41st president of Argentina from 1974 to 1976. She was one of the List of elected and appointed female heads of s ...
, appointed professed fascist Alberto Ottalagano as interventor of the university in 1974. Ottalagano launched a fierce campaign of persecution within the university, targeting students and professors suspected of being sympathizers of the Peronist Left. During Ottalagano's administration, up to 4000 professors were fired (including Nobel in Chemistry laureate Luis Federico Leloir), and four students were disappeared by the State.
An enhanced period of state terrorism
State terrorism is terrorism conducted by a state against its own citizens or another state's citizens.
It contrasts with '' state-sponsored terrorism'', in which a violent non-state actor conducts an act of terror under sponsorship of a state. ...
followed the 1976 coup d'état, which brought to power the dictatorship of the National Reorganization Process
The National Reorganization Process ( PRN; often simply , "the Process") was the military dictatorship that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. In Argentina it is often known simply as the ("last military junta"), ("last military dictatorship") ...
. Professors and students were disappeared regardless of their political affiliations, as public universities were suspected of being "breeding grounds" for leftist sympathizers and subversives.[ In addition, the university's research production and curricula were subject to systemic censorship, and hundreds upon thousands of books were burned (including up to 90,000 books published by Eudeba, UBA's own university press). The dictatorship overran the principles of co-governance and established entrance exams, diminished entrance quotas, eradicated free education, and suspended entire degrees. All of the university's buildings and establishments were put under surveillance by state security forces.
]
1980s to the present day
The university's autonomy and co-governance were re-established with the return of democracy in 1983. In 1985, the university established the ''Ciclo Básico Común'' (CBC; "Common Basic Cycle"), a fixed set of subjects that all aspiring UBA students must approve in order to become enrolled at the university. The CBC replaced the old entrance exams and sought to even the playing field for all students. That same year, the Faculty of Psychology was established, becoming the 12th faculty of the university.[
In addition, in 1985 an agreement was signed between the university and the Federal Penitentiary System, creating what would later become the UBA XXII system. UBA XXII allows all people detained at federal prisons to enroll at UBA and study graduate courses whilst deprived of freedom. In 1988, the Faculty of Social Sciences was established, becoming the youngest faculty at UBA.
]
Organization
The University of Buenos Aires is made up of thirteen self-governing faculties (), which impart a number of graduate and post-graduate courses (). Although not a faculty, the university also manages the ''Ciclo Básico Común'' (CBC, "Common Basic Cycle"), a fixed set of subjects that all aspiring UBA students must pass in order to access any graduate course in the university, and that replaced entrance exams in 1985.
UBA does not count with a single, unified campus. All of its facilities are spread out throughout the City of Buenos Aires, with some (especially branches of the CBC) based in the Greater Buenos Aires
Greater Buenos Aires (, GBA), also known as the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (, AMBA), refers to the urban agglomeration comprising the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of B ...
metro area. The '' Ciudad Universitaria'' ("University City") complex, located in the Núñez neighborhood along the banks of the Río de la Plata
The Río de la Plata (; ), also called the River Plate or La Plata River in English, is the estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River at Punta Gorda, Colonia, Punta Gorda. It empties into the Atlantic Ocean and ...
, is the closest thing to a centralized campus UBA has, housing the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences, the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Urbanism, a CBC branch, and various research institutes.
The faculties are:
The Faculty of Economic Sciences is the largest of the UBA's constituent colleges, with over 36,000 students. In recent years, the Faculty of Medicine
A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, professional school, or forms a part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, ...
has attracted the most new students, with 17,004 new enrollees in 2018 compared to the 7,584 new students the Faculty of Economic Sciences added that same year.
In addition to the thirteen faculties, the university administers 6 hospitals, 16 museums, 13 scientific institutes, 6 interdisciplinary commissions, 5 high schools ( Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires, Escuela Superior de Comercio Carlos Pellegrini, Instituto Libre de Segunda Enseñanza, Escuela Agropecuaria y Agroalimentaria, and Escuela de Educación Técnica de Villa Lugano), the Centro Cultural Ricardo Rojas, the Cosmos Cinema, the University of Buenos Aires Symphony Orchestra, and Eudeba (''Editorial Universitaria de Buenos Aires''), Argentina's largest university press.
Administration and governance
Since the 1918 University Reform, the University of Buenos Aires has been ruled by the principle of co-governance. The university is headed by the Rector and the ''Consejo Superior'' ("Superior Council"). The Consejo Superior is made up of the rector, the deans of the thirteen faculties, and five representatives for each of the three constituent bodies in the university: professors, students and graduates, rounding up to 29 members. Deans and all other representatives of the Consejo Superior are elected every four years in democratic elections in which all professors, students and graduates of the university must partake.
Each of the thirteen faculties is autonomous and self-governed. The faculties have a similar governing system: each of them has a democratically elected dean and a ''Consejo Directivo'' ("Directive Council"). The faculties' directive councils are made up of eight representatives for the professors, four representatives for the student body, and four representatives for the graduates. The Rector is elected every four years by the University Assembly (''Asamblea Universitaria''), made up of all members of the Consejo Superior and all members of the directive councils of all thirteen faculties. Since 2022, the Rector of the University of Buenos Aires has been Ricardo Gelpi.
In addition to the Consejo Superior and directive councils, students in all thirteen faculties count with student unions ("''Centro de Estudiantes''"), which are also democratically elected by students and are organized into the '' Federación Universitaria de Buenos Aires'' (FUBA). The FUBA is part of the Argentine University Federation.
In the 21st century, diverse political forces have vyed for power across all of these democratically elected institutions. Historically, rectors have belonged to the "reformist" camp, closely related to the Radical Civic Union
The Radical Civic Union (, UCR) is a major political party in Argentina. It has reached the national government on ten occasions, making it one of the most historically important parties in the country. Ideologically, the party has stood for r ...
and its student wing, '' Franja Morada''. Peronists and supporters of the Trotskyist left, organized into several different groups and organizations within each of the faculties, have also historically participated in the university's political life.
Rankings and reputation
The QS World University Rankings
The ''QS World University Rankings'' is a portfolio of comparative college and university rankings compiled by Quacquarelli Symonds, a higher education analytics firm. Its first and earliest edition was published in collaboration with '' Times ...
ranked the University of Buenos Aires as 66th in the world in 2021. THE's World Reputation Rankings 2020 placed it in the 176–200 range, whereas it is not listed in the performance-based THE World University Rankings.
Notable alumni
Throughout its history, a sizeable number of UBA alumni have become notable in many varied fields, both academic and otherwise. Among them are four of Argentina's five Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...
laureates, seventeen presidents of Argentina, and several other notable individuals in various fields, including sciences, business, literature, philosophy, law, medicine, the arts, architecture, and others. Many more are further associated to the university as faculty or through research at UBA institutes and dependencies.
Politics
Seventeen Argentine presidents have attended the University of Buenos Aires: Carlos Pellegrini, Luis Sáenz Peña, José Evaristo Uriburu, Manuel Quintana, Roque Sáenz Peña, Victorino de la Plaza, Hipólito Yrigoyen, Marcelo T. de Alvear, Agustín P. Justo, Roberto Ortiz, Ramón Castillo, Arturo Frondizi
Arturo Frondizi Ércoli (Paso de los Libres, October 28, 1908 – Buenos Aires, April 18, 1995) was an Argentine lawyer, journalist, teacher, statesman, and politician. He was elected president of Argentina and governed from May ...
, Arturo Illia, Raúl Alfonsín, Adolfo Rodríguez Saá, Eduardo Duhalde
Eduardo Alberto Duhalde (; born 5 October 1941) is an Argentina, Argentine former peronist politician who served as the interim President of Argentina from January 2002 to May 2003. He also served as Vice President of Argentina, Vice President ...
, and Alberto Fernández. All of them, save for Justo, an engineer, and Illia, a physician, were educated at the Faculty of Law. Manuel Quintana also served as rector of the university, while Alberto Fernández taught courses on criminal law at the graduate level for many years before being elected to the presidency.
Many political leaders and relevant figures have also been educated at UBA, such as the Marxist revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara, who enrolled at the Faculty of Medicine in 1948. Several government ministers of Argentina have received their degrees at UBA, such as the foreign ministers José Luis Murature, Ángel Gallardo (also a Rector of UBA), Bonifacio del Carril, Miguel Ángel Zavala Ortiz, Juan Atilio Bramuglia, Susana Ruiz Cerutti, Guido di Tella, Adalberto Rodríguez Giavarini, Carlos Ruckauf, and Santiago Cafiero. Economy ministers of diverse political views and pertaining to different economic schools of thought have also earned their degrees at UBA; among them José Martínez de Hoz, Roberto Lavagna, Axel Kicillof, and Nicolás Dujovne.
José Pedro Montero, the 27th president of Paraguay
Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...
, was educated at UBA.
Law
A number of relevant jurists have earned their law degrees at the UBA Faculty of Law. Carlos Saavedra Lamas
Carlos Saavedra Lamas (November 1, 1878 – May 5, 1959) was an Argentine academic and politician, and in 1936, the first Latin American Nobel Peace Prize recipient.
Biography
Born in Buenos Aires, Saavedra Lamas was a descendant of an early Ar ...
, noted academic and jurist and Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish language, Swedish and ) is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the Will and testament, will of Sweden, Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobe ...
laureate in 1936, earned his law degree at UBA and served as rector of the university from 1941 to 1943.[ Luis Moreno Ocampo, Chief Prosecutor of the ]International Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is an intergovernmental organization and International court, international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute ...
, earned his degree in 1978.[Luis Moreno-Ocampo (2003). Retrieved 3 February 2009.] International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR; ; ) was an international court, international ''ad-hoc'' court established in November 1994 by the United Nations Security Council in United Nations Security Council Resolution 955, Resolutio ...
judge Inés Mónica Weinberg de Roca is also a UBA alumna and former faculty, having taught courses on International Private Law since 2001. Several ministers of the Supreme Court of Argentina have been UBA alumni as well, such as Enrique S. Petracchi, Carlos Fayt, Carmen Argibay, Elena Highton de Nolasco, and Carlos Rosenkrantz. Mariela Belski, Executive Director of Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...
Argentina is also a UBA alumni. Prominent legal philosopher Eugenio Bulygin earned his law degree and his PhD at the UBA Faculty of Law, where he also taught throughout his career. Teodosio César Brea, founder of the prominent Allende & Brea law firm, graduated UBA and taught courses at the Faculty of Law as well. Valeria Vegh Weis, criminologist
Criminology (from Latin , 'accusation', and Ancient Greek , ''-logia'', from λόγος ''logos'', 'word, reason') is the interdisciplinary study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is a multidisciplinary field in both the behaviou ...
, criminal attorney, and university professor, was also educated at UBA.
Medicine
The University of Buenos Aires has produced several relevant figures in the field of medicine. Two Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine () is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, acco ...
laureates have been educated at UBA: Bernardo Houssay (1947) and César Milstein (1984). Houssay's work was carried out at the UBA-affiliated Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental, while Milstein received degree from the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences.
Élida Passo (1867–1893), the first Argentine woman to be a pharmacist and South American woman university graduate, earned her UBA degree in 1885. The first woman to receive a medical degree in Argentina, Cecilia Grierson, did so at the UBA Faculty of Medicine
A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, professional school, or forms a part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, ...
in 1889. Other prominent physicians educated at UBA include public sanitarist Ramón Carrillo, Teresa Ratto, surgeon Juan Rosai, Luis Agote, dentist Ricardo Guardo (credited as the founder of the UBA Faculty of Dentistry), geneticist Primarosa Chieri, and pharmacologist Augusto Claudio Cuello, professor at McGill University
McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...
in Canada.
Business
Prominent businesspeople educated at the University of Buenos Aires include oil tycoon Alejandro Bulgheroni, and his brother, Bridas Corporation CEO Carlos Bulgheroni; agri-business executive Andrea Grobocopatel, and sugar magnate Robustiano Patrón Costas. The university has also produced many successful startup founders. Unicorn startups founded by the University of Buenos Aires's alumni raised the most money in venture capital
Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...
funding in the Latin American region in 2020.
Engineer and manufacturer Horacio Anasagasti, who created the first Argentine-produced car (the '' Anasagasti''), graduated from the UBA Faculty of Engineering aged 23 in 1902.
Mathematics and science
A number of prominent scientists in diverse fields have been educated at the University of Buenos Aires; many of them have also taught classes and have conducted research at UBA. Luis Federico Leloir, Argentina's first Nobel Prize in Chemistry
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry () is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outst ...
laureate for his discovery of the metabolic pathway
In biochemistry, a metabolic pathway is a linked series of chemical reactions occurring within a cell (biology), cell. The reactants, products, and Metabolic intermediate, intermediates of an enzymatic reaction are known as metabolites, which are ...
s in lactose
Lactose is a disaccharide composed of galactose and glucose and has the molecular formula C12H22O11. Lactose makes up around 2–8% of milk (by mass). The name comes from (Genitive case, gen. ), the Latin word for milk, plus the suffix ''-o ...
, earned his degree at the Faculty of Medicine in 1932, and attended classes at the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences early into his career as well. In the field of chemistry, UBA also educated Silvia Braslavsky, who worked extensively in the domain of photobiology
Photobiology is the scientific study of the beneficial and harmful interactions of light (technically, non-ionizing radiation) in living organisms. The field includes the study of photophysics, photochemistry, photosynthesis, photomorphogenesis, ...
and was senior research scientist and professor at the Max Planck Institute for Radiation Chemistry.
UBA has also produced a number of prominent biologists, especially in the field of Antarctic marine biology. Among these are Irene Schloss and Viviana Alder. Patricia Ortúzar, geographist and vice chair of the Antarctic Committee for Environmental Protection, also received her degree from the University of Buenos Aires. Neuroscientist, Turing Fellow and Cambridge University
The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
lecturer Tristan Bekinschtein is a FCEN UBA graduate.
Mathematicians educated at UBA include Graciela Boente, researcher of robust statistics
Robust statistics are statistics that maintain their properties even if the underlying distributional assumptions are incorrect. Robust Statistics, statistical methods have been developed for many common problems, such as estimating location parame ...
; Alberto Calderón, co-creator of the " Chicago School of (hard) Analysis"; Luis Caffarelli, whose work focuses on partial differential equations
In mathematics, a partial differential equation (PDE) is an equation which involves a multivariable function and one or more of its partial derivatives.
The function is often thought of as an "unknown" that solves the equation, similar to how ...
; Alicia Dickenstein, known for her work on toric geometry, tropical geometry, and their applications to biological systems; Miguel Walsh, known for his work in number theory
Number theory is a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers and arithmetic functions. Number theorists study prime numbers as well as the properties of mathematical objects constructed from integers (for example ...
and ergodic theory
Ergodic theory is a branch of mathematics that studies statistical properties of deterministic dynamical systems; it is the study of ergodicity. In this context, "statistical properties" refers to properties which are expressed through the behav ...
.
Other prominent UBA scientists include pioneering computer scientist Cecilia Berdichevsky, physicist Juan Martín Maldacena, ecologist Enrique Chaneton, molecular biologist Alberto Kornblihtt, physicist Beatriz Susana Cougnet de Roederer, biologist María Fernanda Ceriani, solar physicist and former CONICET president, Marta Graciela Rovira, and Emma Pérez Ferreira, first female president of Argentina's National Atomic Energy Commission.
Philosophy and social sciences
UBA has produced a number of important thinkers and researchers in the fields of social science and philosophy. Raúl Prebisch, creator of the Prebisch–Singer hypothesis and a major proponent of dependency theory
Dependency theory is the idea that resources flow from a " periphery" of poor and exploited states to a " core" of wealthy states, enriching the latter at the expense of the former. A central contention of dependency theory is that poor states ...
, studied economy at the Faculty of Economic Sciences. Social anthropologist Esther Hermitte, credited with introducing structural-functionalist anthropology in Argentina, was a Faculty of Philosophy and Letters alumna, as was post-marxist
Post-Marxism is a perspective in Critical theory, critical social theory which radically reinterprets Marxism, countering its association with economism, historical determinism, Antihumanism, anti-humanism, and class reductionism, whilst remai ...
theorist Ernesto Laclau
Ernesto Laclau (; 6 October 1935 – 13 April 2014) was an Argentine political theorist and philosopher. He is often described as an 'inventor' of post-Marxist political theory. He is well known for his collaborations with his long-term partner, ...
.
Political scientist
Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...
Guillermo O'Donnell studied law at UBA and later pursued a political science degree in the United States; today, he is credited as a major influence in Argentine political science. Sociologist and political activist Pilar Calveiro began her studies at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, before the creation of the Faculty of Social Sciences in 1988. Former British spy Richard Tomlinson
Richard John Charles Tomlinson (born 13 January 1963) is a former officer of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). He argued that he was subjected to unfair dismissal from MI6 in 1995, and attempted to take his former employer to a tri ...
studied political science at UBA during his stay in Argentina.[Tomlinson, Richard, ''The Big Breach: From Top Secret to Maximum Security.'' Foreword by Nick Fielding. Mainstream Publishing 2001 ]
In the field of psychoanalysis
PsychoanalysisFrom Greek language, Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious mind, unconscious processes and their influence on conscious mind, conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on The Inte ...
, Faculty of Psychology alumna Alicia Beatriz Casullo is known for being the founder and first head of the ''Sociedad Argentina de Psicoanálisis''.
Architecture
The University of Buenos Aires has produced a number of prominent architects, renown both nationwide and internationally. Clorindo Testa, pioneer of the brutalist movement in Argentina, earned his degree at the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Urbanism (FADU) in 1948. The rationalist Alberto Prebisch earned his degree at the School of Architecture (predecessor of FADU) in 1921; he would later become dean of FADU in 1955. New York-based urban design theorist Diana Agrest graduated from FADU in 1967. Other known UBA-educated architects include Claudio Vekstein, organic architecture proponent Patricio Pouchulu, and the Uruguayan Rafael Viñoly, who designed the ''Cero+infinito'' building at the Ciudad Universitaria complex, finished in 2022.
Arts, literature and film
Writers associated with UBA include the novelist and short story writer Julio Cortázar, one of the founders of the Latin American Boom. Cortázar began a philosophy degree aged 18, but did not complete it due to financial woes. The poet and critic Jorge Fondebrider studied literature at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, and later served as director of the UBA-owned Centro Cultural Ricardo Rojas. '' The Manipulated Man'' author Esther Vilar, and the poet and translator Alejandra Pizarnik, were also educated at UBA.
After receiving a degree in Natural Sciences from the university, Alicia Jurado wrote biographies of William Henry Hudson, Cunninghame Graham
Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham (24 May 1852 – 20 March 1936) was a Scottish politician, writer, journalist and adventurer. He was a Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Party Member of Parliament (MP); the first ever socialist member of the Parliam ...
, and Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo ( ; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator regarded as a key figure in Spanish literature, Spanish-language and international literatur ...
. The short story writer Samanta Schweblin studied film design at UBA. Elena Presser also began her studies at the University of Buenos Aires, as did film director Juan Cabral.
Media
The university operates its own radio station, '' Radio Universidad de Buenos Aires'', broadcast on the FM 87.9 MHz frequency. Its content is mostly oriented toward academic and social topics. Launched on 20 December 2005 after being authorized by AFSCA, its motto is ''El saber está en el aire'' ("Knowledge is in the air").
See also
* Education in Argentina
** List of Argentine universities
* Argentine university reform of 1918
* Science and technology in Argentina
References
External links
*
Study in Argentina: argentine government website for international students
{{DEFAULTSORT:Buenos Aires, University Of
1821 establishments in Argentina
Argentine national universities
Education in Buenos Aires
Educational institutions established in 1821
Universities in Buenos Aires Province
Universities in Buenos Aires