The institutes of the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana are areas of convergence of academic nature, which collect, unite and strengthen the various educational activities under the new social and the requirements of a complementary and convergent work realities. The Pontifical Bolivarian University (Spanish: Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana), also referred to as UPB, is a private university in Colombia with its main campus in Medellín, where it was founded in 1936. Currently, the university has campuses in other Colombian cities, such as Bogotá, Bucaramanga, Montería and Palmira. The university has a student and faculty population that was estimated at 21,368 and an alumni population of 44,346 as of September, 2006.