Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico


The Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico was founded on 21 September 1551 by Royal Decree signed by Charles I of Spain, in Valladolid, Spain. It is generally considered the first university officially founded in North America and second in the Americas.
After the Mexican War of Independence it was renamed University of Mexico. When Mexican liberals were in power at intervals in the nineteenth century, it was closed, since liberals sought to put education in the hands of the state rather than the Roman Catholic Church. Its first closure was in 1833, when Valentín Gómez Farías implemented liberal policies. When Antonio López de Santa Anna returned to power, the university was reopened. It was finally abolished in 1865 during the Second Mexican Empire by Maximilian I of Mexico. Scattered institutions, including secularized successors of its faculties of law and medicine, other secular colleges founded by liberals on the model of the French grandes ecoles, and religious establishments outside Mexico City, continued without interruption.
In 1910, during the regime of Porfirio Díaz, Justo Sierra merged and expanded Mexico City's decentralized colleges of higher education, founding the National Autonomous University of Mexico. UNAM is a public university and considered the institutional heir of the earlier original University of Mexico, but under state rather than church control.

Organization

The university was organized by five faculties: Theology, Laws, Fees, Medicine, and Arts. The principal subjects or chairs were Prima and Vísperas, due to the initial class being in the morning and the second in the evening. The university granted different degrees such as bachiller, licenciado, maestro and doctor, which translate to bachelor, graduate, master and doctor respectively.

Notable alumni