Simón Bolívar University (Venezuela)

Simón Bolívar University (Spanish: Universidad Simón Bolívar, USB) is a public university in Venezuela with a focus on science, technology, and engineering. Founded by presidential decree in 1967 and inaugurated in 1970, it operates two campuses: the main campus in the Sartenejas valley of Baruta municipality, Miranda state (south of Caracas), and a second campus in Camurí Grande, Vargas state, on the Caribbean coast.^[2][3]

The university offers undergraduate and graduate programmes across engineering, the sciences, architecture, urban planning, and the humanities. It is ranked among the top three universities in Venezuela and has appeared in the QS World University Rankings and the Times Higher Education World University Rankings.^[3][4] The institution was named after independence hero Simón Bolívar and carries the motto "The University of the Future" (La Universidad del Futuro).^[2]

Since the 2010s, USB has been severely affected by Venezuela's economic and political crisis, with significant faculty departures, deteriorating infrastructure, and disputes over university autonomy.^[5]

In May 1967, the Venezuelan government created a commission—composed of Luis Manuel Peñalver, Luis Carbonell, Mercedes Fermín, Miguel Ángel Pérez, and Héctor Isava—to study the feasibility of a new university oriented towards the country's scientific and technological development.^[2] On 18 July 1967, President Raúl Leoni signed Decree No. 878 establishing the institution as an Instituto Experimental de Educación Superior under the name Universidad de Caracas.^[2]

The name proved contentious because the Central University of Venezuela had originally been known by the same name. After the National Academy of History, the Bolivarian Society of Venezuela, and other institutions requested that the new university be named after Simón Bolívar, President Rafael Caldera issued a decree on 9 July 1969 renaming it the Universidad Experimental Simón Bolívar.^[2] Days later, Caldera appointed the philosopher Ernesto Mayz Vallenilla as founding rector, ratified Francisco Kerdel Vegas as academic vice-rector, and designated Federico Rivero Palacio as administrative vice-rector.^[2]

Academic activities began on 19 January 1970, when Caldera inaugurated the university on the grounds of the former Sartenejas ranch. The institution initially offered five undergraduate programmes: mathematics, chemistry, physics, electrical engineering, and chemical engineering.^[6]

In 1977, a second campus was opened in the Camurí Grande valley on the Caribbean coast (now Vargas state) to serve the Litoral Central region, initially focused on technical and associate-degree programmes.^[3] The university's programme offerings expanded over time to include architecture, urban planning, humanities, and social sciences at the undergraduate level, alongside a broad range of master's, doctoral, and specialisation programmes.^[3]

USB operated as an "experimental university" under the direct oversight of the national government until 18 July 1995, when President Caldera—in his second term—granted it full university autonomy by presidential decree.^[2]

The university logo was designed by Venezuelan graphic designer Gerd Leufert, inspired by a photographic reproduction of an electrical circuit. It consists of eight semicircular lines and a small rectangle at their centre, forming a structure resembling a rounded pyramid; the design is intended to represent a gateway symbolising the unity of various fields of knowledge and their projection into the future. Students colloquially call the logo "La Cebolla" ("the onion").^[6]

The Sartenejas campus features several notable works of public art. The Laberinto Cromovegetal (1995) is a circular garden designed by artist Carlos Cruz-Diez. The Estructura Hidrocinética (Hydro-Kinetic Sculpture) was designed in 1975 by architecture student Gabriel Martín Landrove, who won an institutional competition; construction was completed and the sculpture inaugurated on 5 July 1991. The campus also includes an Espejo Solar by Alejandro Otero and a statue of Simón Bolívar by the Peruvian sculptor Joaquín Roca Rey.^[7]

The main campus occupies approximately 3,489,000 m² (348.9 ha) of land in the Sartenejas valley within the municipality of Baruta, Miranda state, south of Caracas. The campus is set in a suburban, forested environment with extensive green areas.^[3] It houses the rectory and the majority of the university's academic and research facilities.^[3]

The Litoral campus is located in Camurí Grande, Vargas state, on the Caribbean coast. It was significantly damaged by the catastrophic mudslides of December 1999, which destroyed much of the regional infrastructure. Reconstruction has proceeded gradually, and programmes that had been temporarily relocated to Sartenejas have progressively returned to the coastal campus.^[8]

The Simón Bolívar University Library serves the academic community with a focus on the sciences, engineering, mathematics, and humanities. Among its special collections is the archive of founding rector Ernesto Mayz Vallenilla, which includes his personal library and philosophical works. In September 2021, library director Alejandro Teruel resigned, stating that the annual library budget of approximately US$100 was insufficient to cover even one per cent of the institution's needs.^[9]

USB offers ten undergraduate engineering programmes (including electrical, electronic, computer, mechanical, chemical, materials, telecommunications, geophysics, production/industrial, and maintenance engineering), undergraduate programmes in biology, mathematics, physics, chemistry, architecture, and urban planning, as well as ten associate-degree programmes at the Litoral campus in fields such as hotel administration, tourism, and aeronautic maintenance.^[3]

At the graduate level, the university offers approximately 24 master's degree programmes, over 30 specialisation programmes, and 15 doctoral programmes spanning the applied sciences, engineering, and social sciences and humanities, including PhDs in engineering, political science, philosophy, literature, and sustainable development.^[3]

In the QS Latin America & the Caribbean University Rankings 2026, USB was ranked 66th in Latin America and third nationally in Venezuela, behind the Central University of Venezuela and the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello.^[10] In the QS World University Rankings 2026, the university was placed in the 1001–1200 band.^[3] Times Higher Education has described USB as a public institution that consistently appears in Latin American and world rankings, with specialisms in engineering and architecture.^[4]

The 2009 Ley Orgánica de Educación (Organic Law of Education), passed by the National Assembly, imposed new conditions for the election of university authorities. USB and other autonomous universities challenged the law before the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, arguing that it violated university autonomy; the case remained unresolved for years.^[6] The government subsequently appointed a vice-rector to USB without the university community's approval, a decision rejected by the university's academic staff association.^[6]

In 2010, security forces raided a call centre set up by the NGO Voto Joven on the university campus during the 2010 Venezuelan parliamentary election, entering with firearms and confiscating computers without a search warrant, in what the university described as a violation of its autonomy.^[11]

Venezuela's economic crisis has had a severe impact on the university. Bloomberg News reported in 2019 that USB had become "a shadow of its former self", with government funding for education having grown scarce under the administration of Nicolás Maduro. Alumni living abroad were financing computer replacements and library books through private donations, and some classes were being taught remotely by graduates who had left the country.^[5]

Faculty losses have been dramatic. A Scholars at Risk report stated that more than 600 professors out of a faculty of 794 had left USB over the preceding decade to accept academic posts abroad, and that the most qualified staff—those with significant publication records in international journals—were disproportionately represented among those departing.^[12] Science magazine reported that, as of 2024, Venezuela's scientific productivity had dropped sharply compared with other Latin American countries, and that former USB director Benjamín Scharifker warned of a generational gap among researchers.^[13]

USB supports over 50 student organisations.^[3] Several of the university's competition teams have achieved international recognition. The USB delegation to the Harvard National Model United Nations has won the "Best International Delegation" award five times, and the university's World Model United Nations team has won the "Best Large Delegation" award three times. The Baja SAE team has ranked among the top five in its class during ten consecutive years.

The Estructura Hidrocinética is a large kinetic water sculpture and one of the campus's most recognisable landmarks. It consists of 576 metal trowels arranged in a 48-by-12 matrix on a truncated conical structure, driven by a Pelton wheel and an electrical pump. The sculpture can rotate on its vertical axis, creating multiple small waterfalls. It was designed by Gabriel Martín Landrove in 1975 as the winning entry in an institutional competition, with construction completed and the sculpture inaugurated on 5 July 1991 under the supervision of Professor Stefan Zarea. The university activates the fountain during special occasions such as graduations.^[14]

• Marisol Aguilera, researcher and professor

• Official website
• Asociación de Egresados USB (in Spanish)