King Juan Carlos University
King Juan Carlos University (Spanish: Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, URJC) is a Spanish public research university located in the southern area of the Community of Madrid (Spain), with four campuses at Móstoles, Alcorcón, Vicálvaro and Fuenlabrada.
It is named after former king Juan Carlos I of Spain and has the Latin motto Non nova, sed nove ("Not new things, but in a new way"). It was established in 1996 by the government of the Community of Madrid.
With 37,939 students, it is the second-biggest public university in the Community of Madrid, behind the historical Universidad Complutense. URJC is one of eight universities in the Community of Madrid, and it is the second-newest university in the community.
In March 2018, the University suffered major prestige loss when newspapers identified multiple irregularities in the award of a master's title to President of the Community of Madrid Cristina Cifuentes, and that her sister was irregularly hired as a professor. Shortly thereafter, another prominent politician of the Partido Popular, Pablo Casado, was found to also have obtained a master's degree from the university without ever attending any class or taking any test. This followed the 2017 forced resignation of the president of the university, Fernando Suárez Bilbao, for heavy plagiarism in his PhD thesis. In May 2018, a private teaching company that is very closely associated with the new president of the university, Javier Ramos, was additionally found to be using a 1M$ technical building of the university without any rent. That building additionally was designed for the university by an architect who worked for many months without a contract and outside any legal frame.
