National University of Engineering (Peru)

The National University of Engineering (acronym: UNI) is a Peruvian public university located in the city of Lima. Founded in 1876 as the School of Civil and Mining Engineers, this theoretical-practical institution had the Polish engineer Eduardo de Habich as its first director and was part of a state initiative whose purpose was to promote the development of Peru. It was the first engineering school in the country, later converted into a university in 1955. As a polytechnic education center, it specializes in engineering, science, and architecture. Its academic offer is distributed in eleven faculties that cover 29 undergraduate courses, 57 master's programs and ten doctorates.

Known for its rigorous selectivity, the university has more than thirteen thousand students and is considered the main training center for engineers, scientists and architects in Peru. Its main campus is located in the Rimac district and has an area of 66 hectares.

History

Eduardo de Habich, a Polish engineer of French training, was the manager of the foundation of the Peruvian School of Engineers, today National University of Engineering.

Background

In the middle of the 19th century, there was a need in Peru for Peruvian professionals who could carry out large works such as mining, design and construction of railway lines, development of road infrastructure, hydraulic works, etc. However, there was no school education in engineering or a body of national professionals to direct these new projects, so mostly foreign engineers and the few Peruvians who had studies abroad were hired. Although there were some proposals for technical schools such as the Huánuco Mining School created by the Peruvian scientist Mariano Eduardo de Rivero y Ustáriz in 1828, it was not until 1852 that the Peruvian State commissioned the French engineers Charles Faraguet and Emilio Chevalier and the engineer Polish Ernesto Malinowski the formation of a school of civil engineers, without it getting to work. By 1860, the regulations of the State Corps of Engineers and Architects were approved, an organization that, in addition to being in charge of the execution of public works and regulating the exercise of engineering and architecture, had the competence to accredit such professions through experience. labor. In 1872, under the government of President Manuel Pardo, the State Corps of Engineers and Architects was reformed so that this entity also defined the requirements and procedures to become an engineer or architect.

In the following years, the intention of establishing a mining school arose, so in 1875 Manuel Pardo sent the Polish engineer Eduardo de Habich, who had worked at the service of the State since 1869, to Europe in search of teaching materials, teachers and a study program. Said institution was never created, but instead it was decided to address the problem of public education as a whole with the elaboration of an education law, the first of the Republican era. Habich participated in the preparation of this document, the General Regulation of Public Instruction, where the creation of the School of Civil and Mining Engineers was conceived. The objective of the school was to train professionals who direct engineering work and promote the industrial development of the country.

Foundation and early years

The promulgation of the General Regulation of Public Instruction on March 18, 1876 constitutes the legal birth certificate of what is now called the National University of Engineering and marked the beginning of school education in engineering in Peru. The official inauguration ceremony of the School of Engineers took place at 3 in the afternoon on July 23, 1876 in the facilities of the historic mansion of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, although classes had started earlier, on July. Initially, the school had two engineering sections: Civil Constructions and Mines, and was also in charge of training surveyors. He also set up a network of schools for mine foremen and foremen in several mining settlements nationwide. Eduardo de Habich was the first director, a position he would hold until his death in 1909. The teaching staff was made up of professionals from the Corps of Engineers and State architects —among whom the Polish engineers Ksawery Wakulski, Władysław Folkierski, Wladyslaw Kluger and Aleksander Babinski stood out—, as well as professors from the Faculty of Sciences of San Marcos. To study at the school, applicants, who could come from secondary school or from the San Marcos Faculty of Sciences, had to take one to two years in a preparatory section before following the three years of specialization. In 1901, it was created the specialty of Industrial Engineering in response to the growing development of the manufacturing industry.

In its early years the School of Engineers worked in the environments adjacent to the Patio de Chicos de la Casona de San Marcos.

The School initially functioned in the Patio de Chicos of the San Marcos campus known today as the Casona de San Marcos. During the occupation of Lima, the Chilean army invaded the premises and turned it into a barracks. Therefore, classes had to be given in provisional premises such as the Scientific Institute owned by José Granda and in rented rooms from the Santo Domingo Convent. After the withdrawal of the invading army in 1883, the School undertook a reconstruction effort while looking for its own headquarters. In 1889 the State ceded it a place in the center of Lima known as Espíritu Santo, located at the intersection of what is now Jirón Callao and Avenida Tacna, where it remained until 1946. The main source of income for the School came from the tax on mines until 1897, the year in which it began to depend economically on the Ministry of Public Works. During this first period of its history, the School periodically published two publications: the Anales de Construcciones Civiles y de Minas del Perú and the Boletín de Minas, Industria y Construcción, the which had international significance.

Growth and modernization

In the year 1910, a reform was implemented in the then school with the aim of adapting to the new times and the new technologies that emerged at that time. As a consequence, two new sections were implemented: Electrical Mechanics and Architects-Constructors. On July 19, 1955, the School of Engineers was renamed the National University of Engineering and its Specialty Departments became faculties.

Government

As an academic community dedicated to research and teaching, the National University of Engineering is an autonomous entity recognized by the Peruvian State. Its autonomy is manifested in the regulatory, government, academic, administrative and economic spheres. The government of the university is exercised by the following instances:

• University Assembly: It is the largest governing body of the university, it is composed of the rector, the academic vice-rector, the administrative vice-rector, the dean of the faculties, the director of the postgraduate school, the representatives of the professors of the various faculties in number equal to twice the sum of the university authorities, where half are principal, one third associates and a sixth assistant, the representatives of the students in the proportion of one third of the total number.

• University Council: It is the largest organ of promotion and execution of the university, it is composed of the rector, the academic and administrative vice-rectors, the dean of the faculties, the director of the Graduate School, the representatives of the students in the proportion of one third of the total members of the Council and a representative of the graduates.

• Rector: The rector is the legal representative of UNI. He also chairs the two main governing bodies of the university: the University Assembly and the University Council. There are also two vice-rectors: academic and administrative. They support the rector in the government of the university and in case of impediment or vacance, one of them assumes the post. Dr. Jorge Alva Hurtado held the position of rector in the period 2015-2020, being internally succeeded by Dr. Luz De Fátima Eyzaguirre—the first woman to occupy the highest authority of the institution throughout her history—and then by Dr. Pedro Canales García. For the period 2021-2026 Dr. was elected as rector. Pablo Alfonso López-Chau Nava.

Studies

Admission

Admission to the university is carried out by public competition twice a year in the months of February and August. Among the different types of admission aimed at high school graduates, the most popular is the ordinary exam. With the objective of selecting the most qualified applicants to face the high academic level of engineering, architecture and science studies; UNI has one of the most demanding admission exams in Peru. This exam consists of three parts that are evaluated on three dates (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) and last three hours each. The first tests knowledge of academic aptitude and the humanities, the second tests knowledge of mathematics, and the third tests physics and chemistry. Applicants to the specialty of Architecture must also take a vocational aptitude test. In 2020 the most demanded careers were Civil Engineering, Architecture, Systems Engineering, Mechatronics Engineering and Industrial Engineering, these together brought together more than half of the total of applicants. In addition to the academic requirement, the competitiveness of the UNI admission process is very high. The selectivity rate that same year was one entrant for every nine applicants.

Academic Areas

UNI specializes in the fields of engineering, science and architecture. Its eleven faculties offer 29 undergraduate programs, 57 master's degrees and ten doctorates. Most of its professional schools of engineering and science are accredited by ABET while architecture is accredited by the Royal Institute of British Architects. Undergraduate courses last for five years, one year of which corresponds to general studies and the next four to specialized studies. Master's studies take two years to complete, while doctoral studies take three.

Campus

Main campus buildings of the National University of Engineering.

After having operated for more than 50 years in a building in the center of Lima, in 1943 the UNI moved to its current premises located in the district of Rímac, on the border with the districts of San Martín de Porres and Independencia. This property has an area of 66 hectares and extends for almost two kilometers along Túpac Amaru avenue, with which it borders to the west. The campus is divided by an easement road that gives access to a housing estate located behind the UNI. Most of the faculties and dependencies of the university are located to the south of this road. In addition to its main premises, the UNI has a campus in the district of San Borja where the INICTEL-UNI facilities are located.

The campus is served mainly by the UNI and Honorio Delgado stations of the Metropolitano. It is surrounded by a residential area on its western and northern front while to the east it is bordered by hillsides. Its extension houses the buildings of the eleven faculties of the university as well as the central library, the UNI theater, sports facilities such as the stadium and the university coliseum, the Eduardo de Habich Museum of Arts and Sciences, the Museum of Mineralogy and Paleontology, the student dining room, the university residences, the National Hydraulics Laboratory, the Center for Information and Communication Technologies, the Japanese-Peruvian Center for Seismic Research and Disaster Mitigation, the Center for Projection and Social Responsibility, a plant wastewater treatment plant and a small pre-Hispanic archaeological site known as Huaca UNI-CISMID. Also within its area there is a concession area for commercial use where there is a Metro supermarket store, movie theaters and a mobile hospital belonging to the Metropolitan System of Solidarity of the Metropolitan Municipality of Lima.

Students and professors

The number of undergraduate students at UNI rose to 12,060 in the second semester of 2019. Its students come from all departments of Peru, with a majority from Lima reaching 66% of the total. Inequality of Gender is very high among its students, only 15% of the students are women. For the same period in 2019, the number of postgraduate students reached a total of 1,071 students, while the teaching population totaled 1,339 professors.

Academic Rankings

In recent years, the use of international university rankings to evaluate the performance of universities at a national and global level has become widespread; Being these rankings academic classifications that locate the institutions according to a bibliometric-type scientific methodology that includes measurable and reproducible objective criteria, taking into account, for example: academic reputation, employability reputation for graduates, research citations to their repositories and their impact on the web. Of the total of 92 licensed universities in Peru, the National University of Engineering has been regularly located within the top ten places nationwide in international university rankings.