The story
Universidad ORT Uruguay traces its origins to 1942, when it was founded as a technical school by members of Uruguay’s Jewish community. The initiative formed part of the international network of World ORT, established in 1880 in Saint Petersburg, and sought to provide vocational training to immigrants arriving in Uruguay—many of them fleeing Nazism—in order to facilitate their social and economic integration.
By the 1980s, ORT Uruguay had expanded its academic offerings, particularly in electronics and computer science. In 1985, it applied to the Ministry of Education and Culture for official recognition of its tertiary degrees in Systems Analysis and Electronics, which was granted in 1988. These authorisations were among the first granted by the Uruguayan state to a non-governmental tertiary institution. That same year, the institution established the School of Management, regarded as the first business school in Uruguay.
In 1995, the government enacted the country’s first legal framework regulating private universities, at a time when the only university in operation was the public University of the Republic. In February 1996, ORT Uruguay became the first institution to apply for authorisation under the new legislation and was formally recognised as a private university in September of that year.
Between 1996 and 1999, its principal academic faculties were created. The Faculty of Engineering consolidated several pre-existing departments, followed by the Faculty of Administration and Social Sciences—successor to the School of Management—the Faculty of Communication and Design, and, in 1999, the Faculty of Architecture.
In 2003, the Institute of Jewish Studies was reorganised to promote research and outreach activities related to Jewish history and culture in Uruguay, antisemitism, and the Shoah, including seminars, publications and documentary projects. In 2008, the Faculty of Communication and Design signed an academic cooperation agreement with the California Institute of the Arts, supporting the launch of undergraduate programmes in Animation and Video Games.
From 1977 to 2024, the university’s rector was Charlotte de Grünberg, a Belgian-born Holocaust survivor who had resided in Uruguay since 1952. ORT Uruguay is a member of several international academic associations, including the International Association of Universities (IAU) and the Union of Latin American Universities (UDUAL). Its Master of Business Administration (MBA) programme was ranked among the best in Latin America for the 21st consecutive year in 2017, according to the annual ranking published by AméricaEconomía.
From Wikipedia’s article on Universidad ORT Uruguay, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4