History

1908 - 1936

In January 1908, the Santander City Council agreed to donate the Magdalena Peninsula to his Majesty Alfonso XIII. The City Council decided, by popular subscription, to build a Royal Palace in that peninsula. The City Council issued a request for proposal for the architectural project design of the building. The winners, Gonzalo Bringas and Javier González Riancho, were Santander residents. On august 4th 1913, the Royal Family took possession of the Palace. Queen Victoria Eugenia personally supervised the Palace decoration and furnishing.

For 17 years the Palace was the Royal Family´s summer residence. After the declaration of the Second Republic in April 1931, the Palace remained closed. In 1932, the Minister for Public Education, Mr. Fernando de los Rios, submitted a proposal for the creation of the Summer International University in Santander. The Government enacted a decree approving its establishment at the Magdalena Palace and naming Mr. Ramón Menéndez Pidal, historian and philologist, as the President of the new University. By the same decree, the poet and professor Pedro Salinas, was elected as Secretary General. The figure of Pedro Salinas was the true galvanizer of this new and unique institution. The Menéndez Pelayo Society and the Graduate Medical Institute hosted by the Valdecilla Health House had taught these courses since 1926.

1945 - 1974

1971. Writer Miguel Delibes at the Novel Course

The Civil War disrupted the activities of the International University. During the summer of 1938 the Ministry of National Education entrusted the Menéndez Pelayo Society with the organization of Spanish culture and language courses for foreigners. Finally, in November 1945, at the petition of the Minister of National Education, José Ibáñez Martín, the government enacted a decree that approved the creation of the Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo in Santander. The former San Rafael Hospital was chosen as the University headquarters. The new institution started to operate in 1947 at the Monte Corbán Diocesan Seminary as well as in several other educational centers in Santander.

During the summer of 1949, the University recovered the Magdalena Palace as its principal headquarters. This was made possible by a gracious concession from his Majesty Juan de Borbón, Count of Barcelona.

The University’s first president was Ciriaco Pérez Bustamante. Mr. Bustamente preserved the three principal academic activities that had characterized the University: courses on contemporary issues and the humanities, Spanish language and literature for foreigners, and medical science at the Valdecilla Health House.

The eminent faculty’s intellectual and scientific excellence was lead by three prominent figures -Pedro Laín Entralgo, Rafael Lapesa, and Emilio Díaz Caneja. Diversification and specialization increasingly improved giving shape to the wide-ranging curriculum of this unique educational institution.

The growing pace of University activities made it necessary to establish an additional campus located at Las Llamas. The new campus was designed to fit buildings suitable for classrooms as well as for housing services for the foreign students who kept coming to the Spanish language, literature and culture courses. The housing services also received humanities students. In 1968 Florentino Pérez Embid replaced Pérez Bustamante as University President.

1975 - 1982

1978. Francisco Grande Covián at the Magdalena Palace

During this time, the University Presidents were Francisco Ynduráin (1974-1980) and Raúl Morodo (1980-1983). It is in this period when the abbreviation UIMP took root as the University acronym.

In these eight years, the University reinforced itself as an outstanding undergraduate and graduate education undertaking. It demonstrated that, as an institution, it was capable of overcoming the immense changes of a society that was experiencing a complex political transition. It was in this context that a poet and professor closely related to the University defined it as a real “island of freedom.”

Admiration and respect for humanistic and scientific knowledge were considered as the raison d'être of the UIMP. Since its inception, the University has aimed to fulfill two equally appealing and indispensable cultural and educational needs: a concern for the universal wants that arise from insightful awareness and the curiosity and resourcefulness to find answers to meticulously specified technical queries that advance academic disciplines. In this vein, University offerings of specialized courses have increased over time. This initiative was a product of UIMP’s quest to address progress made in the experimental, humanistic, social, and technological sciences and the students’ needs and expectations. Likewise, the University expanded its cultural activities, such as cinematography, music, poetry recitals, theatre and other cultural affairs that run parallel to the well-know festivals in the Plaza Porticada. The founding of Cantabria University in 1972 enabled the sharing of Las Llamas campus by both institutions, thereby yielding greater efficiency in the use of installations.

There was also progress in the expansion of activities such as cinematography, music, poetry recitals, theater and other cultural affairs that run parallel to the well-known festivals in the Plaza Porticada. The founding of Cantabria University in 1972 enabled the sharing of Las Llamas campus by both institutions, thereby yielding greater efficiency in the use of installations.

1983 - 2006

1996. Writer Carmen Martín Gaite at the Magdalena Palace

An era that is vast in time and intense in University activities. During this period there have been several Presidents of the University, namely, Santiago Roldán (1983-1989), Ernest Lluch (1989–1995), José Luis Garcia Delgado (1995-2004), Luciano Parejo Alfonso (2005-2006)and Salvador Ordóñez Delgado, who assumed the position in November 2006.

During the course of these twenty long years, the IUMP has undertaken its activities not only in Santander, where its headquarters are located, but also in seven other cities, where courses of a shorter duration, most of which are monographic, are offered.

With the passage of time, both the prestige and the identity of International University Menendez Pelayo have been affirmed. Serving as a testament to this success is the fact that in the summer of 2004, 134 courses were offered in Santander, with 9,063 students (almost 2,000 of which were foreign exchange students) enrolled.

During recent years, the general program at the University has assigned the most pre-eminent courses to one professor. The courses offered in the Schools of Social Anthropology, Engineering of Materials, Philosophy of Science, Molecular Biology, Theology, Nutrition, Neurology, Neurosciences, Psychology, etc. are also taught by renowned professors.

There are two outstanding recent initiatives: the Marine Studies Seminar “Rector Jordá”, in collaboration with Cantabria University and the Santander Port Authority- located at the Faro de la Magdalena; and the University Studies Introduction Seminar “Aula Ortega and Gasset”. Since 1987, the University has bestoweb and sponsored the “Menéndez Pelayo International Award”, supported by the sponsorship Eulalio Ferrer’s sponsorship. Eulalio Ferrer has lived both in Santander and Mexico.