Universidad de Málaga

The history of the University of Málaga begins in 1968 with the creation of the Association of Friends of the University of Málaga (Asociación de Amigos de la Universidad de Málaga). This association sought the creation of the university because of the needs of the city (it was the only European city of over 300,000 inhabitants which did not have a university.) The University of Málaga was founded by decree of 18 August 1972 by grouping existing centers in the late 1960s: the Higher Polytechnic School (Spanish: Escuela Universitaria Politécnica) (1927), the Normal School (1846), the Faculty of Economics of the University of Granada in Málaga (1963) and the Seminar (1587).

At the time of its creation, the university provided the Faculty of Economics and Business and the Faculty of Medicine, which were created after the ratification of the decree. Its first location was the El Ejido Campus, along with several administrative centers around the city.

UMA developed an expansion plan regarding fields of study and infrastructure. Thus, once established in El Ejido Campus, the university expanded towards the western district of Teatinos, an area that initially comprised the School of Medicine, the School of Humanities, and the School of Science, and gradually developed into a whole campus providing a full range of academic studies and services.

The UMA has 278 research groups, which are involved in 80 national projects and 30 European and International projects. In the last few years, the number of agreements and contracts with businesses and organisations has varied between 350 and 400 and an average of over 50 patents have been registered—30 of them of an international nature. In recent years, reduction in public funding for research projects has driven to the loss of many research positions and the rise of very short-term contracts, with salaries for researches as low as 600 euros per month.