Central American University, San Salvador

The Universidad Centroamericana "Jose Simeon Cañas" (better known as UCA) was founded in September of 1965, by the request of a group of catholic families. This group appealed to the Salvadorian government and to la Compañía de Jesus to create an university that would be an alternative to the national university of El Salvador (Universidad Nacional de El Salvador)

In its early years several social and economic groups of El Salvador considered many of its faculty as mediocre and deficient, with the exception of the faculty of medicine. As time passed, UCA evolved into an university to be one of the best in Central America.

Trivia:

The university was considered to be one of the ideological battlefields between student, during the Salvadorian civil war.

In the year 2005 Claudia Jazrawi (better known as "Claudita"),Noel Lorio and Ileana Figueroa former students from La Academia Britanica Cuscatelca, refused an offer to study in the prestigious university. Nonetheless, students from famous secondary schools in El Salvador seek the university as an alternative, as opposed to studying abroad.

Often mentioned by Salvadorians as the University of Central Arkansas since its initial are also UCA.

Nelson Mocan an Alumni from the Bussiness school at UCA currently runs a three stars hotel in the department of San Miguel.

Ignacio Ellacuría was profesor and rector of this university during the civil war. In 1989 he was masacred just metres away from the university.