The Real Colegio Complutense at Harvard University (RCCHU, RCC) is a University center affiliated to Harvard University since 1990, under the presidency of Derek C. Bok. It is the only Spanish World Class Excellence Center in the US and has an exclusive relationship with the Ivy League university.
RCC is a non-profit organization registered in the state of Massachusetts (USA), aimed at providing academic, scientific, and cultural cooperation between Harvard University and the Spanish system of Higher Education. It promotes and develops activities in every realm of the knowledge triangle.
For the past 30 years, RCC has received up to 6,000 Alumni and visitors, endorsing around 2,000 research projects, and programs through 500 fellowships for faculty and graduate students. It has hosted around 500 courses, featuring professors from Harvard, and other prestigious universities worldwide. It has also organized more than 4,000 activities in cooperation with the various Schools at Harvard University.
The original ten-year agreement between Harvard University and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid was renewed in 2009. As part of an expansion project, RCC has recently incorporated four Partner Universities, namely Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (2013), Universidad de Alcalá (2014), Universidad de Sevilla (2015), Universitat de València (2015), and Universidad de Oviedo (2022).
In 2015, RCC created and became a sponsor of Harvard Spain, the association of Spanish graduate and undergraduate students enrolled at Harvard University.
RCC’s activities and programs are approved by the Academic Council, co-led by the President of Harvard, and integrated by members of the most representative schools at Harvard University, such as the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Business School, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Law School and Harvard Medical School.
The current RCC Director is Daniel Sánchez Mata, Associate at the Harvard University Herbaria, Organismic and Evolutionary Department, Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University and Full Professor of Botany at Universidad Complutense of Madrid.