National University of San Marcos

National University of San Marcos

Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos
Latin: Academia S. Marci Vrbis Regvm in Perv
Motto	Universidad del Perú, Decana de América
Motto in English	University of Peru, Dean of America
Type	Public
Established	May 12, 1551
Rector	Dr. Orestes Cachay Boza
Academic staff	2005 (full time) 674 (part time)
Undergraduates	17,596
Postgraduates	2,198
Location	Lima , Peru [ ⚑ ] : 12°03′30″S 77°05′00″W / 12.05833°S 77.0833333°W / -12.05833; -77.0833333
Campus	Urban 70 hectares (170 acres) (main campus)
|u}}rs	Gold      Magenta      White      Steel blue
Mascot	Lion
Website	www.unmsm.edu.pe

The National University of San Marcos (Spanish: Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, UNMSM) is a public research university in Lima, capital of Peru. Also known as the "Dean university of the Americas", it is the first officially established (privilege by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor) and the longest continuously operating university in the Americas.^[1]

It is widely regarded as an influential institution of higher-education in the country. It consistently ranks among the top two universities in the country.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} Its main campus, the University City, is located in Lima. It was chartered on May 12, 1551, by a royal decree signed by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, which makes it the oldest officially established university in the Americas.^[8] San Marcos has 60 academic-professional schools,^[9] organized into 20 faculties, and 6 academic areas. All of the faculties offer undergraduate and graduate degrees. The student body consists of over 30,000 undergraduate and 4,000 graduate students from all the country, as well as some international students. The university has a number of public institutions under its government such as the San Marcos Cultural Center and the Museum of Natural History of Lima.

It is also the only university in Peru with a Nobel Prize laureate among its alumni: Mario Vargas Llosa (Literature). San Marcos is also recognized for the quality of its curricular contents, a competitive admissions process, as well as for being a center of scientific research.^[10] Several Peruvian and Latin American influential thinkers, researchers, scientists, politicians and writers have studied there, which underscores San Marcos' leading role as an educational institution in the history of Peru and the world.

History

Oldest university in America

Tower at the University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras, showing (right) the emblem of Harvard University‍—‌the oldest in the United States‍—‌and (left) that of University of San Marcos‍—‌the oldest in the Americas.

San Marcos is considered the oldest university in the American continent. It was officially established by a royal decree (signed by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor) on May 12, 1551, and since then it has operated without interruption. Hence, it is locally known as the Dean of America ("dean" in the sense of "oldest member"). San Marcos also claims that according to the Archivo General de Indias, a Spanish repository of documents on the former colonies in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, there were no official Spanish records of any other university or higher-education institution before 1551.^[1]

However, the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo was founded in 1538. It was not officially recognized by Royal Decree until 1558, and, as many other universities in the Americas closed during independence wars and other political conflicts, it was closed due to the occupations of the Dominican Republic by Haiti and then the United States.

Organisation

Government

The university was originally headed by members of the clergy. During the Enlightenment, Bourbon reforms transformed it into a secular institution. Nowadays, the university is governed by:

• The University Council
• The University Assembly (composed of professors and students, with the latter holding a third of the seats)
• The Rector (president)
• Two Vice-Rectors:
  • Academic Vice-Rector
  • Vice-Rector of investigation

Academic areas and faculties

The original faculties at San Marcos were Theology, Arts (the old Scholastic term for what is now known as academic Philosophy) and Law; Jurisprudence, and Medicine were added later in the colonial period. The Faculty of Natural Sciences and the Faculty of Economics and Commerce were created in the mid-19th century. The Faculty of Science was subdivided by specialities in the 20th century. The Faculty of Theology was closed in 1935.

In the mid-1990s San Marcos' departments were grouped into four academic blocks. Nowadays, San Marcos' faculties are grouped into 6 academic areas.

Notable alumni and academics

Class of Jurisprudence and Law of 1896 posing in front of department's water fountain

• Carlos Monge Medrano, physician
• Laura Esther Rodriguez Dulanto, first female physician in Peru
• Santiago Antúnez de Mayolo, engineer and scientist
• José María Arguedas, novelist and anthropologist
• Jorge Basadre, historian
• Luis Bedoya Reyes, attorney, congressman, Mayor of Lima and founder of the Christian People's Party
• G. E. Berrios, professor of psychiatry at the University of Cambridge
• Bertha Bouroncle, physician
• Alfredo Bryce Echenique, novelist
• Carlos Bustamante, biophysicist
• Daniel Alcides Carrión, medical student and pioneer in medical research
• Ramiro Castro de la Mata Caamaño, scientist
• Carlos Manuel Chavez, heart surgeon
• José Santos Chocano, poet
• Antonio Cornejo-Polar, literary critic
• Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre, revolutionary thinker, founder of the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance (APRA)
• Cayetano Heredia, physician
• Mariano Iberico Rodríguez, philosopher
• Francisco Miró Quesada Cantuarias, philosopher and logician
• Bernardo O'Higgins, military officer and first President of Chile
• Valentín Paniagua Corazao, former President of Peru
• Hugo Pesce, physician and leprosy specialist
• Luis Alberto Sánchez, writer and statesman
• Manuel Scorza, novelist
• Julio C. Tello, archaeologist
• Abraham Valdelomar, poet and short-story writer
• Mario Vargas Llosa, novelist, Nobel Prize in Literature (2010)
• Federico Villarreal, scientist and mathematician

Gallery

• 

  Oil painting commemorating the foundation of the University of Lima (later named San Marcos), officially the first university in Peru and America, and his manager Friar Tomas of San Martin

• 

  The historic chapter house at the Basilica and Convent of Santo Domingo, where the University of San Marcos began its operations

• 

  Drawing showing the old facade of the premises where the University of San Marcos functioned throughout the Peruvian viceroyalty. Later this place would be transferred to the nascent Congress of Peru.

• Congreso 1822.jpg

  The First Constitutional Congress of Peru was chaired by Toribio Rodríguez de Mendoza and held in the chapel of the University of San Marcos on September 20, 1822.

• 

  Local University of San Marcos in 1920, the famous "Casona de San Marcos is currently the Centro Cultural de San Marcos

• 

  Welcome Mural Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, as he mentioned the official date of its foundation: May 12 of 1551

• 

  La Casona de San Marcos, used as the cultural center

• 

  Jorge Basadre building, used for administrative functions

• 

  Main library

• 

  San Marcos University Press

• 

  San Marcos University Gym

• 

  San Marcos University Stadium

• 

  Metallica concert at University of San Marcos

• 

  Monument of Fray Tomas de San Martín

• 

  Main auditorium

• 

  San Marcos University Clinic

• 

  Institute Tropical Medicine

• 

  Museum of Natural History

See also

• Casona de la Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos
• List of colonial universities in Latin America
• History of the National University of San Marcos seal

References

|author    = García Zárate, Óscar Augusto [compilador]
|title     = Hacia una nueva universidad en el Perú
|url       = http://sisbib.unmsm.edu.pe/Bibvirtual/books/Educaci%C3%B3n/nueva_universidad/contenido.htm
|year      = 2003
|publisher = Lima, Perú: Fondo Editorial de la UNMSM
|language  = es

Notes

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (category)

• (in Spanish) Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos website
• (in Spanish) Faculty of Medicine website

0.00 (0 votes)