National University of San Marcos

The National University of San Marcos (Spanish: Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, UNMSM) is a public research university located in Lima, the capital of Peru. In the Americas, it is the first officially established (privilege by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor) and the oldest continuously operating university.

The university started in the general studies that were offered in the convent of the Rosario of the order of Santo Domingo—the current Basilica and Convent of Santo Domingo—in around 1548. Its official foundation was conceived by Fray Thomas de San Martín on May 12, 1551; with the decree of Emperor Charles I of Spain and V of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1571, it acquired the degree of pontifical granted by Pope Pius V, with which it ended up being named the "Royal and Pontifical University of the City of the Kings of Lima". It is also referred to as the "University of Lima" throughout the Viceroyalty.

Throughout its history, the university had a total of four colleges under tutelage: the Colegio Real y Mayor de San Martín and the Colegio Real y Mayor de San Felipe y San Marcos, the Real Colegio de San Carlos—focused on law and letters, derived from the merger of the two previous ones—and the Royal College of San Fernando—focused on medicine and surgery.

The University of San Marcos has passed through several locations, of which it maintains and stands out: the "Casona de San Marcos", one of the buildings in the Historic Center of Lima that were recognized as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO in 1988. The University of San Marcos has 66 professional schools, grouped into 20 faculties, and these in turn in 5 academic areas. Through its "Domingo Angulo" historical archive, the university preserves documents and writings. In 2019, the "Colonial Fund and Foundational Documents of the National University of San Marcos: 1551–1852” was incorporated into the UNESCO Memory of the World Register.

The National University of San Marcos is currently the leading Peruvian institution in scientific production, both annually and cumulatively throughout history. It has also achieved the top position nationally in various editions of academic university rankings, being one of the three Peruvian universities to ever reach such a position and the only public one to do so. It holds a ten-year institutional licensing granted by the National Superintendency of Higher Education (SUNEDU) and an international institutional accreditation. To date, twenty-one Presidents of the Republic of Peru, seven Peruvian candidates for the Nobel Prizes in Physics, Literature, and Peace, and the only Peruvian Nobel Prize laureate have been alumni or professors of this institution. Due to its historical and academic significance, the National University of San Marcos is often referred to as the most important and representative educational institution in Peru.