List of colonial universities in Hispanic America

Yet by the end of the eighteenth century, numerous universities and other institutions of higher education could be found in North, Central and South America.

[1]The Christian mission of the Indians and the increasing demand for skilled hands in the administration of the rapidly growing empire made the Spanish colonists realize the need to offer a university education on soil in the Americas.

[5] A leading role was assumed by the gradually evolving full universities which additionally offered courses in medicine and jurisprudence, thus comprising all four classic faculties.

[9] Nevertheless, the Spanish universities in the Americas fulfilled their primary task, the education of the clerical and secular viceroyalty elite, and could thus assume an important function in aiding the development of the young republics after the separation from the motherland.

[10] The lower local demand for theological and legal specialists was largely met by Jesuit colegios, while students aspiring to higher education had to take up studies overseas at the University of Coimbra.