The University of Chile was founded on the 19th of November, 1842. It is the oldest higher education institution in Chile. Generating, developing, integrating and communicating knowledge in all the areas of knowledge and culture are the mission and basis of the activities of the University. This makes up the involvedness of their work and directs the education they impart.

Among the first Presidents are the founder, the Venezuelan humanist and jurist Andrés Bello (1843 – 1865), and the Polish scientist and mineralogist Ignacio Domeyko Ancuta (1867 – 1883).

The University is located in the capital city Santiago de Chile and it is a public university with international quality. All the areas of knowledge are elaborated in their lecture halls and today the university is at the top of the Chilean university system with regard to teaching, research, creation and outreach.

• Faculties and Institutes: Distributed in five campuses and several experimental stations in Santiago and other Regions of Chile:
  • 14 Faculties: Architecture and Urbanism, Arts, Agricultural Sciences, Sciences, Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Forestry Sciences, Chemical Sciences and Pharmacy, Social Sciences, Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Law, Economy and Business, Philosophy and Humanities, Medicine and Dentistry.
  • 4 Interdisciplinary Institutes: Public Affairs, Communications, International Studies and Nutrition and Food Technology.
• The University of Chile has 41.547 students:
  • 32.422 undergraduate students
  • 9.125 graduate students

Faculty: 3.723 which 1.583 are full-time.

20 Chilean Presidents have been students of the University of Chile (61% of the total). Also, the two Chileans who received the Nobel Prize, Gabriela Mistral (1945) and Pablo Neruda (1971), both in Literature, were members of the University.

187 National Awards have been awarded in different fields to distinguished persons that have been alumni, professors or researchers of the University.

It is placed among the 400 best higher educational establishments in the World Ranking of Universities (University Shanghai Jiao Tong, 2018).