344. The University of the Basque Country was born out of the Autonomous University of Bilbao, when the university district was extended to Gipuzkoa and Alava, where in 1977 the Chair of Basque was created at the University College of Alava, headed by Koldo Mitxelena. In 1980, the name Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea- Universidad del País Vasco was authorised and in 1982 the governing board was appointed. 345. On 1 December 1936, the Basque first minister, Jose Antonio Aguirre, opened the Basque university at the Civil Hospital in Bilbao, but it was closed down when Franco's troops took the city in 1937. Nearly forty years later, in 1974, the first dissertation was read in the Basque language; in 1976, the first official classes in Basque were given and in 1979 it became possible to study firstyear biology in Basque. 346. The launch in 1978 of studies in Basque Philology at the schools of San Sebastian, Bilbao and Vitoria was of fundamental importance for the development of Basque literature and language. 347. In 1980, just 2% of students at the University of the Basque Country studied through Basque, as compared to 32% at present. 95% of all compulsory credit courses can now be studied in Basque. Nearly 45,000 people study at the Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa and Alava campuses. Of their 4,500 teachers, 35% can teach in both languages. Amongst the wide range of courses on offer at the University of the Basque Country, 75% of the core subjects are already available in Basque. This meets a growing demand, given that half of all students in the Basque Autonomous Community now sit their university matriculation exam in Basque. Between 1976 and 2009, 325 PhD theses were read in Basque at the University of the Basque Country. In 1995, the first generation to study entirely in Basque throughout their public education entered the University. In 1997, 31% sat the matriculation examination in Basque, by which time nearly half of the 3,540 subjects on offer at the University of the Basque Country were given in Basque. 348. The prestigious physicist Pedro Miguel Etxenike (Isaba 1950), director of the Donostia International Physics Center, is one of a new generation of Basque-speaking scientists. 349. The Bayonne campus houses the Interuniversity Department of Basque Studies, which answers to the Universities Michel de Montaigne, Bordeaux III and Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour. All stages of the degree course are available through Basque. The move was first promoted by the professors of Basque René Lafon. It was then run by Jean Haritschelhar, Jean Baptiste Orpustan and Txomin Peillen and the department currently consists of the teachers Aurelia Arkotxa, Jon Casenave, Xarles Bidegain and Ur Apalategi. 350. Mondragon Unibertsitatea was founded in 1997 through the association of three educational cooperatives. It contains the Higher Polytechnic School and the schools of Business, Humanities and Education Science. It has around 4,000 students, and its trilingual educational model offers classes in Basque, Spanish and English. 351. Since 2009, Stanford University, one of the most prestigious in America, offers courses in Basque Studies within the framework of the Eusko Ikaskuntza Visiting Professor of Basque Culture programme, born out of an agreement with Eusko Ikaskuntza, the Society of Basque Studies. 352. The Basque Studies Program at the University of Reno, Nevada, was created in 1967. The Basque collection at its library is considered to be the best anywhere in the Basque Diaspora 353. The various universities of the Basque Country have a total of over 80,000 students. 354. The University of Deusto was founded in 1886 by the Society of Jesus. It has over 13,000 students distributed in 21 degree courses and 3 diplomas at its two campuses in Bilbao and San Sebastian. It also offers training in Basque. At its Law School, most of the core and compulsory subjects are available in Basque and the university also works on the drafting and translation of laws, dictionaries and manuals in Basque and on technical and legal Basque. 355. The aim of the Basque Studies programme at the University of Boise is to offer a research and study centre that will combines and support work in favour of Basque culture by different Basque- American organisations from the state of Idaho, such as the Cenarrusa Center for Basque Studies, the Basque Museum and Cultural Center, the Boise Euskal Etxea and the BSU itself. 356. The IKER centre for research on Basque language and texts is also at the Bayonne campus, and is run by the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique). 357. The Public university of Navarre opened in 1987 with 500 students. Today it has 9,000. It offers Infant Education and Primary Teacher Training Degrees in Basque, as well as a number of subjects in Agronomy, Economics and Industrial Engineering and Telecommunications degree courses. The percentage of students studying in Basque has increased over the years and now stands at 22.37%. At the latest matriculation examinations, the number of students from Model D (all in Basque) continued to rise, and they achieved better results than their contemporaries from other models. 358. Since 1964, the Opus Dei University in Navarre has had a Chair in Basque Language and Culture, first held by the ethnologist Joxe Miel Barandiaran. Since 1994 it has offered a Diploma in Basque Studies. 359. The first university in the Basque Country was founded in Oñati in 1542. It closed in 1901. 360. The UEU (Basque Summer University) was set up in 1973 to promote a Basque university, build bridges between the Basque language and the university sphere, bring together the Basque-speaking scientific and intellectual community and produce university disciplines for the new society. The UEU currently has a membership of 1,200, organised into 27 areas of knowledge, at its four centres in Bilbao, Bayonne, Eibar and Pamplona. 361. Today the Basque language is studied at 30 universities in countries around the world: the US, Uruguay, Chile, Mexico, Argentina, Germany, France, Poland, Finland, Italy, Hungary and the Czech Republic. Basque language and literature is also taught at the Universitá della Sapienza in Rome. In Spain it is taught at the universities of the Community of Valencia, Barcelona and Madrid and at the Correspondence University, UNED.