The University of Aveiro () is a public university, in addition to providing polytechnic education, located in the Portuguese city of Aveiro. Founded in 1973, it has a student population of approximately 12,500, distributed among 58 graduate, 40 Masters of Science and 25 PhD programs, distributed by departments and autonomous sections, with specialized faculties. It is a Research & Development university, with research departments developing programmes in fundamental and applied mathematics, physics, chemistry, telecommunications, robotics, bioinformatics, sea sciences, materials, design, business administration and industrial engineering. The main campus and nearby Administration and Accounting Institute, are located in the city centre of Aveiro. There are external/regional campuses in Águeda (Higher Education Technological and Management School of Águeda) and Oliveira de Azeméis (Higher Education School of North Aveiro). It serves as a pole for the inter-university Doctoral program, along with the universities of Porto and Minho. Its integrated Masters in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering was the first Portuguese IT oriented European Accredited Engineering Masters (EUR-ACE) by the European Network for Accreditation of Engineering Education. History On 15 December 1973, at the inaugural speech of Professor José Veiga Simão, then Minister of National Education () the new rector, stated: "In the peaceful construction of the future and in defense of sacred and enduring values, here will rise the University of Aveiro. Announced in a speech at the Museum of Aveiro, the event was held to mark the first meeting of the commission establishing the University of Aveiro, that included José Simão and other members of academic society and Aveiro. The first pedagogical and scientific activities began in 1974, with first days classes in the telecommunication course, comprising 46 students. The licentiate courses established at the University of Aveiro (UA) were the first courses in innovative areas, that were not explored by traditional universities at the time in Portugal, but important to regional or national initiatives. By 1976 there were courses in environmental science and education, natural sciences and education, mathematics and education, Portuguese-English and education and Portuguese-French and education. The student population included 338. It was only in that year that the first infrastructure were established in the area later known as the University Campus of Santigao (). During the 1977–1978 lecture year, there was a proposal to create a pilot project: the first Centro Integrado de Formação de Professores (CIFOP), today the Integrated Unit for Continuing Education (), in the country. At