The University of La Serena is the historical heir of the various initiatives in Higher Education developed in our Region in the last 200 years.

On June 3, 1838, the Polish scholar Ignacio Domeyko Ancuta arrived in La Serena, who began the professional teaching of mining in Chile when he was hired by the Chilean Government as a teacher of the Chemistry and Mineralogy course at the Departmental Institute of Coquimbo, current Lyceum. of Men of La Serena.

In 1874 the La Serena Normal School of Preceptors was born, created by Decree No. 30, promulgated by President Federico Errázuriz Zañartu; After four years of operation, this School closed until its reopening on April 6, 1890, the year in which the German educator Isabel Bongard Cordes assumed its direction.

On August 26, 1887, the La Serena Practical Mining School was founded, whose first director was Don Buenaventura Osorio Álvarez, continuing the legacy of mining teaching that Domeyko had begun years before and which was characterized by strong basic training in sciences and engineering disciplines, a lot of laboratory work and practical experience, and intense vocation of teachers to teach young people.

On February 27, 1952, the regional headquarters of the State Technical University was established, of which the School of Mines became a part. Its first director was Don Carlos Rey Blanco.

On July 27, 1957, the Regional Conservatory of Music dependent on the Faculty of Musical Arts and Sciences of the University of Chile was founded in La Serena, which was later integrated into the local headquarters of the same university. The first director of the Conservatory was Mr. Jorge Peña Hen.

On June 5, 1961, the University of Chile installed the Regional University College in the city, which began to teach pedagogy courses in humanistic and scientific specialties. Two years later the Regional College became the University Center and in 1971 it acquired the status of headquarters of the University of Chile.

In 1974 the Normal School of Preceptors was transferred to the regional headquarters of the University of Chile.

On March 20, 1981, the former regional headquarters of the former State Technical University and the University of Chile merged, giving rise to the University of La Serena, whose first Rector was Mr. Daniel Arriagada Pineda.

The creation of the University of La Serena is established by Decree with Force of Law No. 12, of 1981, of the Ministry of Education. Since its founding, the ULS began its academic activities with three faculties: Engineering, Sciences and Humanities. In 2000, the Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences was created. The initial undergraduate enrollment consisted of 4.200 students.

The mission of the University of La Serena is to cultivate, generate, develop and transmit superior knowledge in the various areas of knowledge and domains of culture, through teaching, research, creation, innovation, university extension and links with the half.

As a distinctive feature of its mission, the University of La Serena must contribute to satisfying the needs of general interests of society, collaborating, as an integral part of the State, in all those policies, plans and programs that promote cultural development, social, territorial, artistic, scientific, technological, economic and sustainable of the country, at the national and regional level, with an intercultural perspective.

Likewise, as a constitutive and unavoidable element of its mission, the University must assume with a vocation for excellence the training of people with a critical and reflective spirit, who promote rational dialogue and tolerance, and who contribute to forging a citizenship inspired by ethical values, democratic, civic and social solidarity, respectful of human rights, gender equality, indigenous peoples and the environment.

The University must promote that its students have a connection with the requirements and challenges of the country and its region during their professional training.

The University of La Serena recognizes, promotes and incorporates as part of its work the worldview of the native peoples settled in its regional sphere of influence.

The update of the Institutional Mission is due to changes in the current legal regulations for State Universities.
Source: Document “Adaptation and Extension of Strategic Development Plan 2021-2023”