In April 1961, the first admission exam was held. It would serve as a future model for other universities in the country. A total of 585 applicants competed for 65 openings. The admitted students, together with others that transferred from universities in Perú and abroad, started classes in May 1962. The official inauguration of the new university was June 18, 1962, under the leadership of doctors Honorio Delgado and Alberto Hurtado.
The establishment of the Cayetano Heredia National Hospital in 1967, made official the permanent collaboration between the UPCH and the Ministry of Health, and enabled the development of community medicine by students and professors from the University in an area of influence, from the district of Rímac to the province of Canta, in Lima.
Today they prepare students with a global vision, based on the principles that guided their founders: Honorio Delgado, Alberto Hurtado, Carlos Monge C., Víctor Alzamora C., Javier Mariátegui, Uriel García, Mariano Querol, among others. Also, their former Provosts, besides the first three already mentioned, doctors Enrique Fernández, Homero Silva, Alberto Cazorla, Carlos Vidal, Roger Guerra-García and Oswaldo Zegarra. That is how they who received this legacy understand it today. Therefore, they have sought to make their institution an especially conducive place for research and reflection, where knowledge is nurtured with all the necessary resources. They are aware that a true university is rooted in the society that hosts it, and which it must serve, while it also opens up to the world to engage in an ongoing dialogue and exchange of knowledge.
Currently, more than 9 000 alumni from different UPCH faculties/programs are making their contributions in their profession in the country, and the world.
