Pontificia Universidad Catolica Madre y Maestra
Ranked the 2nd best university in the Dominican Republic by the annual QS World University Rankings, the Pontifical Catholic University "Madre y Maestra" (PUCMM) is one of the country's most respected universities. Founded in 1962 in Santiago by the Dominican Order of the Roman Catholic Church, the University began its teaching endeavors in the fields of Law, Education, and Philosophy with sixty students and fifteen professors. The University has grown considerably over the past four decades and now enrolls nearly 13,000 students at three different campuses pursuing coursework in disciplines ranging from the Natural and Social Sciences and Humanities to Business, Engineering, and Health Sciences. The University is fully accredited by the State Department of Higher Education, Science, and Technology (Secretaría de Estado de Educación Superior, Ciencia y Tecnología). Around 7,500 undergraduate and graduate students study at the main campus in Santiago. The University is, in its own words, an "institution committed to academic excellence and that has among its goals the objective search for truth, the transmission and increase of knowledge, and the integral development of the human person."