University of Puerto Rico

The University of Puerto Rico is the main public university system in Puerto Rico. It was established in 1900 as the first higher education centre in Puerto Rico. It initially enrolled 20 students and five professors. It then became the University of Puerto Rico in 1903.

It is a largely Spanish-language institution which consists of 11 campuses and has approximately 58,000 students and 5,300 staff members.

There is one campus dedicated to the medical sciences located in San Juan. The other campuses are located in Aguadilla, Arecibo, Bayamon, Carolina, Cayey, Humacao, Mayaguez, Ponce, San Juan and Utuado.

The university is particularly well known for its engineering programmes. It graduates more than 600 engineering graduates a year and the university's job fair has a record-setting number of companies and federal agencies recruiting engineers. The list included Motorola, Raytheon Systems, IBM, the US Department of Energy and the US Geological Survey.

The university also offers the largest variety of academic programmes on the island and the largest number of postdoctoral programmes on the island. There are 472 academic programmes in total and 32 doctorate programmes.

It also conducts more than 80 per cent of all post-secondary research on the island. Research activity at the institution has seen a rapid growth since 1985 doubling every five years.

It is the most selective institution in Puerto Rico.

The university has its own radio station called WRTU Radio Universidad de Puerto Rico and was established in 1980. It is a public radio station with plays diverse music programmes and news.