The Central University of Ecuador (Spanish: Universidad Central del Ecuador) is a public university in Quito, Ecuador. By institutional lineage it is among the oldest universities in the Americas: its origin lies in the royal charter of the Jesuit Real y Pontificia Universidad de San Gregorio Magno (1620), later merged (1786–1788) with the Dominican Universidad de Santo Tomás de Aquino to form the Crown’s Real y Pública Universidad de Santo Tomás. It was reorganized as the Universidad Central de Quito by the General Law on Public Education of 18 March 1826 during Gran Colombia, and adopted its current name by decree in 1836.