The University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM) is the best model on higher education and research in the regional community. The presence of university campuses in four of the five province capitals of Castilla-La Mancha (Albacete, Ciudad Real, Cuenca and Toledo), apart from campuses in cities as important as Talavera de la Reina and Almadén, makes its facilities a strategic point in the urban development of the places in which they are located. It is important to note that both Toledo and Cuenca are considered as World Heritage Cities by UNESCO. The integration of the University in urban spaces has been made at all times respecting the uniqueness of the environment. The location of the campus, in urban or closed to it, makes university life share the dynamism of the cities, benefiting from all the services they can offer.
The UCLM is a modern, international, competitive and dynamic university with about 30,000 students and 2,300 professors and researchers. Beyond the preparation for the exercise of professional activities, the institutional commitment with the creation and transmission of science, skills and culture is based on promoting the development with the excellence as a referent, paying special attention to values such as solidarity, sustainability, efficiency, merit, ability, transparency and equality.
The UCLM offers 44 Bachelor’s degrees in all knowledge areas having a wide range of postgraduate studies (34 master's degrees and 113 continuing education programs) oriented to satisfy the specific demands of the productive sector, as well as doctoral programs to train our graduates. The current initiative involves employment generation through entrepreneurship, online learning and knowledge transfer at a state and regional R & D + i framework, and especially internationalization. Hence, the university has more than 400 International Exchange Agreements, 460 outgoing students, 832 incoming student in the 2014-2015. In addition, the university offers Spanish courses as foreign language in Toledo and Cuenca. The duration of these courses ranges between 4 week and the full academic year.
In the university campus of Cuenca and Toledo, both being World Heritage cities, some buildings have been restored which, in some cases, date back to the seventeenth century, having adapted its structure to the academic and research university usage and being integrated in the university life with an environment of architectural preservation. It stands out the Technological Campus located in the Old Factory for Weapons, being declared of cultural interest; Old Town buildings such as Saint Peter and God’s Mother convent and cardinals Lorenzana and Padilla’s palaces in Toledo, or “Carcel de los Forzados’ Jail” located in the School of Mines in Almadén as part of the structure of the mining park, also declared a World Heritage Site. Both renovations and new constructions have been made according to energy efficiency criteria and environmental respect, using renewable energy forms (photovoltaics solar energy, solar thermal energy, cogeneration, geothermal energy, etc.).