Higher University of San Andrés (Universidad Mayor de San Andrés or UMSA or Major University of San Andrés) is the leading public university in Bolivia, established since 1830 in the city of

La Paz La Paz (), officially known as Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Spanish pronunciation: ), is the seat of government of the Bolivia, Plurinational State of Bolivia. With an estimated 816,044 residents as of 2020, La Paz is the List of Bolivian cities ...

. UMSA is the second-oldest university in Bolivia, after the University of San Francisco Xavier de Chuquisaca (1624). It is one of the most prestigious higher academic centers in the country. As of 2013, UMSA had around 80,434 registered students, making it the university with the largest student body in Bolivia. Several presidents of Bolivia have studied at the university. In 2017, the QS Latin American University Rankings placed UMSA as the best Bolivian university and in the position 91 of the Latin American Universities.

History

The university was founded by

Andrés de Santa Cruz Andrés de Santa Cruz y Calahumana (; 30 November 1792 – 25 September 1865) was a Bolivian general and politician who served as interim president of Peru in 1827, the interim president of Peru from 1836 to 1838 and the sixth president of B ...

by Supreme Decree on 25 October 1830. Owing to its being situated in the nation's seat of government, La Paz, the Higher University of San Andrés has since its founding influenced the social life and history of Bolivia. The university's history consists of three well-defined periods. From its inception in 1830 until a June 1930 revolution the university was official. From 1930 to the 1936 advent of the University Rectorate, position filled by Héctor Ormachea Zalles, the university was a semi-autonomous or

municipal university A public university or public college is a university or college that is in state ownership, owned by the state or receives significant government spending, public funds through a national or subnational government, as opposed to a private unive ...

. From then until the present, the university has been

autonomous In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy, from , ''autonomos'', from αὐτο- ''auto-'' "self" and νόμος ''nomos'', "law", hence when combined understood to mean "one who gives oneself one's ow ...

Headquarters

The building that now hosts the university's main offices, known as Monoblock, is located on Avenue Villazón. It was designed in 1942 by architect

Emilio Villanueva Emilio Villanueva Peñaranda (November 28, 1882, in La Paz, Bolivia – May 14, 1970, in La Paz, Bolivia) was a revolutionary Bolivian architect. His parents were Jose Villanueva (1831–1882) and Maria Peñaranda (1852–1942). His brother, ...

and is considered an iconic example of Bolivian architecture. The building is part of a university complex inspired by

Pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, th ...

architecture that never fully materialized. Construction started in 1942 and concluded on 4 July 1947. It was criticized for being the first

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...

in the city. It is also an epicenter of

social movement A social movement is a loosely organized effort by a large group of people to achieve a particular goal, typically a social or political one. This may be to carry out a social change, or to resist or undo one. It is a type of group action and may ...

s and many congregate there after marching downtown. It has 13 floors, 11 of which are used for classrooms. It contains the most complete library in the country, an auditorium that is open to the public for various events, and a semi-subterranean garden with access to the central

atrium Atrium may refer to: Anatomy * Atrium (heart), an anatomical structure of the heart * Atrium, the genital structure next to the genital aperture in the reproductive system of gastropods * Atrium of the ventricular system of the brain * Pulmona ...

. The library was created in 1930. Due to the high demand for rooms, various

pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings: * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

s and two buildings were built in the surrounding areas. They are separated from Monoblock by open areas and the remnants of the military college, also designed by Villanueva.

Colleges

The university has the following colleges *Law and Political Sciences *Medicin
website
*Architecture, Arts, Design, and Plannin
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*Social Science
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*Economics and Finance *Humanities and Educatio
website
*Pharmaceutical and Biochemical Science
website
*Engineerin
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*Mechanics *Pure and Natural Science
website
(which maintains the Max Schreier Planetarium and the

Astronomical Observatory of Patacamaya Patacamaya or Patak Amaya (Aymara) is a city in Bolivia, situated in the La Paz Department. It is the seat of the Patacamaya Municipality, the fifth municipal section of the Aroma Province. Patacamaya lies in the Altiplano, approximately 100&n ...

) *Dentistry *Agronomy *Earth Sciences

Notable alumni

Ana Teresa Morales Ana Teresa Morales Olivera ( La Paz, 26 October 1959) is a Bolivian economist, professor, and politician. She was the Minister of Productive Development and Plural Economy of Bolivia from 23 January 2011, to 23 January 2015, during the second ...

, economist, professor, and politician *

Eduardo del Castillo Carlos Eduardo del Castillo del Carpio (born 27 December 1988) is a Bolivian lawyer and politician currently serving as the Minister of Government of Bolivia since 9 November 2020. Biography Eduardo del Castillo was born on 27 December 1988 i ...

, lawyer and politician

Doctor honoris causa

Gregorio Baro Gregorio Baró (June 19, 1928 - May 28, 2012) was an Argentine scientist. He was born in Santiago Temple, Córdoba and died in Buenos Aires. Biography The son of Spanish immigrants from the Province of León, more precisely from Cabreros de ...

, Argentine scientist *

Jaime Escalante Jaime Alfonso Escalante Gutiérrez (December 31, 1930 – March 30, 2010) was a Bolivian-American educator known for teaching students calculus from 1974 to 1991 at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles. Escalante was the subject of the 19 ...

, Educator *

Eduardo Bayro Eduardo is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the male given name Edward. Another version is Duarte. It may refer to: Association football * Eduardo Bonvallet, Chilean football player and sports commentator * Eduardo Carvalho, Portuguese footb ...

, Bolivian scientist, expert in geometric algebra *

Takaaki Kajita is a Japanese physicist, known for neutrino experiments at the Kamioka Observatory – Kamiokande and its successor, Super-Kamiokande. In 2015, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with Canadian physicist Arthur B. McDonald. On 1 O ...

, Nobel Prize in Physics 2015

References

External links

Official page of the Higher University of San Andrés

Central Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Higher University of San Andres Universities in Bolivia Educational institutions established in 1830 Schools in La Paz Buildings and structures in La Paz Department (Bolivia) 1830 establishments in Bolivia