Universidad ORT Uruguay is Uruguay's largest private university. It has more than 13,000 students, distributed among five faculties and institutes. History ORT Uruguay was established in 1942 and is a member of the international World ORT educational network founded in 1880 by the Jewish community of St. Petersburg and with a presence in more than 60 countries. In 1995, the Uruguayan government enacted decree 308/95 of 11 August establishing the country's first legal framework for the operation of private universities. In February 1996, ORT Uruguay was the first institution to apply for authorisation to operate as a private university, granted in September of the same year. In July 2012, the Institute of Education of Universidad ORT Uruguay launched Uruguay's first Doctorate in Education. This advanced postgraduate course, recognised by the Uruguayan Ministry of Education and Culture in 2014, encompasses an international network of researchers who focus their academic efforts on issues of relevance to national educators. ORT awards 75 professional qualifications at postgraduate, undergraduate and technical diploma levels in Architecture, Engineering, Biotechnology, Management, Economics, International Relations, Design, Animation, Communication and Education. It has established academic cooperation agreements with more than 200 international universities and institutions worldwide to facilitate student exchanges and collaborative research and teaching projects. It is also a member of several international academic associations, including the International Association of Universities (IAU) and the Union of Latin American Universities (UDUAL). The academic staff is made up of more than 1,500 lecturers and researchers, of whom more than a third are tenured at the university, allowing them to carry out research and work closely with their students. The university runs a scholarship programme benefitting more than 1,000 new scholarship holders per year. The scholarships are aimed at new students whose income or family income prevents them from funding their studies in full, and at high-achieving school leavers. The university's Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE), which was created in 2009, is aimed at fostering innovation and entrepreneurship, promoting opportunities and strengthening ties between business leaders and the academic and socio-productive sectors. The Centre for Innovation also has a laboratory where all the university's areas of knowledge and development converge. The university is also represented by several sports teams: basketball, five-a-side football, handball, hockey and volleyball, all competing in Uruguay's university sports leagues. In 2005, the degrees in Electronic Engineering and Telecommunications Engineering were certified at Mercosur level through the Experimental