Founding
public university in Santiago, Chile
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The University of Chile (Spanish: Universidad de Chile) is a public research university in Santiago, Chile. It was founded on November 19, 1842, and inaugurated on September 17, 1843. It is the oldest university in the country. It was established as the continuation of the former colonial Royal University of San Felipe (1738) (Spanish: Real Universidad de San Felipe), and has a rich history in academic, scientific and social outreach. The university seeks to solve national and regional issues and to contribute to the development of Chile.
Its five campuses comprise more than 3.1 square kilometres (1.2 sq mi) of research buildings, health care centers, museums, theaters, observatories, and sports infrastructure. The institution has more than 40,000 undergraduate and graduate students, offering more than 60 different bachelor's and professional degrees, 38 doctoral programs and 116 master programs.
Notable alumni include Nobel laureates Pablo Neruda and Gabriela Mistral, twenty-one Chilean presidents, and two foreign heads of state.
In 1841 the minister of public education, Manuel Montt, conceived the idea of funding a corporation for the "advancement and development of sciences and humanities". Andrés Bello a Venezuelan poet and humanist, formulated the project which with small modifications became a law on November 19, 1842, creating the Universidad de Chile.
The foundation answered the need to modernize the country which a little more than two decades before had become independent from Spain. It replaced the Real Universidad de San Felipe, which was established in 1738.
The university was formally opened on September 17, 1843. During this period, the university consisted of five faculties (facultades): Humanities & Philosophy, Physical & Mathematical Sciences, Law & Political Sciences, Medicine, and Theology. During its first years the university gave considerable support to education, institutional organization (such as the "Civil Code", a model for America), the building of the road network to join the territory, and the energy and production infrastructure.
By 1931, the number of colleges had increased to six: Philosophy & Education Sciences, Legal & Social Sciences, Biology & Medical Sciences, Physical & Mathematical Sciences, Agronomy & Veterinary, and Fine Arts.
The institution has also contributed to the formation of the intellectual elites and leaders of the country. Most of the Chilean presidents have studied in its lecture halls, as well as people with prominent roles in politics, business and culture.
During Augusto Pinochet's military regime from 1973 to 1989, the university experienced many profound changes. On October 2, 1973, Decree number 50 of 1973 stated that the university's presidents would be designated by the military regime.
The second major change came on January 3, 1981, when another decree completely restructured the university. All of its provincial campuses were separated, conjoined with provincial campuses of the Universidad Técnica del Estado (now Universidad de Santiago de Chile and Universidad de Atacama) and designated as separate universities, such as the Universidad de Talca, Universidad de Valparaiso, the Instituto Pedagógico (Pedagogical Institute, now the Universidad Metropolitana de Ciencias de la Educación), the Universidad de Antofagasta, the Universidad de Tarapacá, Instituto Professional de Osorno (now Universidad de los Lagos), Instituto Professional de Chillán (now Universidad del Bío-Bío), Universidad de la Frontera, and Universidad de la Serena. Some faculties, such as the one located in avenida Portugal and which now belongs to the Universidad Mayor, were privatized and sold at bargain prices to Pinochet cronies.
These changes were orchestrated by influential advisors to the dictatorship as a way to moderate the university's influence on the nation's politics, economics, public policies and intellectual movements, considered leftist by Augusto Pinochet and other right-wing government officials.
In spite of the complete restructuring of the University of Chile, it still remains Chile's most prestigious university in terms of research, applicant preferences and social impact.
The University of Chile offers undergraduate and graduate programs in all areas of knowledge, whose quality has been recognized by the National Accreditation Commission with the maximum score in both areas (2011–2018).
The university's community involves the collaboration of academics, students and staff, who perform the tasks that establish its mission and functions.
The University of Chile is organized into six vice presidencies (Vicerrectorías):
Currently there are 19 faculties and four interdisciplinary institutes which perform academic tasks undergraduate, graduate, research and extension:
The university has a total of 69 study programs, 55 of which are conducive to professional degrees and 14 degrees terminales. Alongside this imparts the Academic Bachelor's Program, which reports directly to the Vice Presidencies of Academic Affairs.
The admission to the programs is through a selection test (Prueba de Selección Universitaria) or the Academic Bachelor's Program. The university also offers special admission to outstanding athletes, blind students, people with media studies in other countries, ethnic agreements, internal career changes and people with studies in other schools.
Alongside this the institution implemented in 2012 an exclusive way of admission called the Sistema de Ingreso Prioritario de Equidad (SIPEE) for students of public system with special vacancies in all careers. Also, in 2014 the Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences initiated the Programa de Equidad de Género (PEG) with special vacancies for the first 40 women applicants who remain on the waiting list.
The University of Chile has the largest and most complex postgraduate system in the country, formed with 36 doctoral programs, 116 master's programs, 38 graduate programs and 69 specialized courses.
The QS University Ranking ranks the University of Chile as 139 in the world for year 2025. The world ranking of universities, elaborated by Shanghai JiaoTong University (China) and the European Union based on research sciences indicators, places it among the 400 best universities in the world. SCImago Institutions Rankings (SIR) makes a characterization of institutions based on research, innovation and visibility on the web, and in 2017 report on investigation, which included more than 4,500 institutions of higher education and other centers in the world, the University of Chile ranked first in Chile, 10 in Latin America and 424 in the world.
The Ranking Web of Universities (Webometrics), which measures the presence and impact on the web of over 11,000 universities, qualifies this college as leader of the country, sixth in Latin America and 371st worldwide. In the 2016 version of the ranking made by AméricaEconomía, University of Chile was ranked first in Chile with the top rating in quality indicators of research, accreditation, infrastructure and inclusion.
On December 21, 2011, the University of Chile was notified by the National Accreditation Commission (CNA) of the positive evaluation in all obligatory areas (institutional management and undergraduate teaching) and electives (research, teaching graduate and linkage with medium). Thus the university is accredited by seven years, the maximum awarded by the agency, for the period between 2011 and 2018.
The University of Chile, the Catholic University, University of Santiago, Catholic University of Valparaíso and the University of Concepción are the only institutions in this country that have the highest accreditation.
The University of Chile is the main Chilean institution in scientific and technological research. It is responsible for a third of the scientific publications and also for the implementation of a high percentage of competitive research projects in most academic fields, including basic sciences, technologies, humanities, social sciences and arts.
Projects funded by the Fund for Scientific and Technological Development (FONDEF): 30 projects currently ongoing, in the areas of Education, Health, Engineering and Agriculture, Forestry and Animal Sciences. Financed by CORFO (Corporation for Fostering Production):
The university has 3,168,373 m2 of urban land, 648,502 m2 of built land in use and 103,884,600 hectares of agricultural land.
The institution has five campuses, all distributed within the metropolitan area.
Text from the Wikipedia article “University of Chile”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.