University of Havana

Key facts

Checked against the sources listed at the bottom of this page on 8 November 2026.

About the University of Havana

The University of Havana was founded on 5 January 1728 by Dominican friars as the Real y Pontificia Universidad de San Gerónimo de La Habana. The university calls it the first university in Cuba and the oldest teaching centre in the country.^[1] Wikipedia adds that it moved to the Vedado district in 1902, was closed in 1956 and reopened in 1959.^[8]

The main campus has been a National Monument since 1978.^[1] The ministry lists the university as a public institution with the accreditation category “Excelencia”.^[3]

Sources are thin and mostly state-run. This page relies on the university’s own website, the Ministry of Higher Education (MES) and Wikipedia, and says where they disagree.

How is the University of Havana ranked?

The aggregator xuanxiao.org lists the University of Havana in the 851–900 band of the QS World University Rankings 2027, published on 18 June 2026.^[4] QS’s own site blocks automated access, so we could not confirm the figure there and treat it as unverified. An exact position is not available to us.

Rankings differ by publisher and year, so treat one band as one view. How we compile rankings. For the national picture, see universities in Cuba.

What can you study at the University of Havana?

The university’s faculties page lists these 14 faculties:^[7]

• Economics and business: Accounting and Finance, Economics, Tourism
• Natural and exact sciences: Biology, Physics, Geography, Mathematics and Computer Science, Chemistry
• Humanities and social sciences: Arts and Letters, Communication, Law, Philosophy and History, Foreign Languages, Psychology

It also names the Colegio de San Gerónimo (preservation and management of cultural heritage) and three institutes: Pharmacy and Food (IFAL), Technologies and Applied Sciences (InSTEC) and Design (ISDi).^[7] Wikipedia gives 15 or 16 faculties, so the count depends on what is included.^[8]

The undergraduate page shows degrees such as Accounting and Finance, Biology, Nuclear Physics, Computer Science, Law, Journalism, Pharmaceutical Sciences and English, French, German and Russian language studies. Courses run as regular day courses, by encounter (part-time) and by distance.^[9] MES counts 43 undergraduate programmes and the university’s postgraduate page describes master’s, doctoral and diploma programmes without numbers.^[3]

How much does the University of Havana cost for foreign students?

We found no published fee amounts for foreign students. The university’s page for foreign students lists the entry routes but no prices; it only shows that a self-financed route exists.^[5]

The Spanish Embassy in Havana states that Cuban universities do not charge enrolment fees (“gastos de matrícula”) to foreign students and gives no information on other costs.^[6] This sits uneasily with the self-financed route, so ask the university’s international relations office which costs apply to your route (phone +53 7879 1313, e-mail uh@uh.cu).^[5]

Under a government agreement or government funding, costs are set by the agreement. Whether the route you need is open to your nationality is decided through that agreement and not by the university alone.^[5] Living costs are not covered by any source we read.

How do you apply to the University of Havana as a foreigner?

The university’s page for foreign students names these routes:^[5]

• Government agreements (undergraduate and postgraduate).
• Government-funded places (undergraduate only).
• Self-financed study (undergraduate and postgraduate).
• Fee exemption under ministerial agreements.
• Semester courses under an agreement or self-financed.

The page does not list requirements and refers applicants to the international relations offices.^[5] National rules cited by the Spanish Embassy (Law 122 of 1995 and MES Resolution 133/2001) require a secondary-school diploma or equivalent, an admission exam taken at home or in Cuba, Spanish proficiency, a certificate of good conduct and a medical certificate.^[6] For visas, contact the nearest Cuban consulate; the university’s migration office handles extensions of academic visas for students who are already temporary residents.^[10]

We give no deadlines because they change every year.

Which language do you need?

Studies in Cuba are in Spanish. The Spanish Embassy lists adequate Spanish proficiency among the national admission requirements.^[6] The university’s foreign-student page does not name a required level or a test.^[5] The Faculty of Foreign Languages teaches English, French, German and Russian as degree subjects.^[9]

More about studying in Cuba

• Cuba: best universities
• Cost of Studying Abroad
• International Student Scholarships
• University Ranking Methodology

More university profiles in Cuba

• Central University “Marta Abreu” of Las Villas
• Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM)
• University of Oriente