University of Costa Rica - History

History

The first institution dedicated to higher education in Costa Rica was the University of St. Thomas (Universidad de Santo Tomás), which was established in 1843. That institution maintained close ties with the Roman Catholic Church and was closed in 1888 by the progressive and anti-clerical government of President Bernardo Soto Alfaro as part of a campaign to modernize public education. The schools of law, agronomy, fine arts, and pharmacy continued to operate independently. In 1940, those four schools were re-united to establish the modern University of Costa Rica (UCR), during the reformist administration of President Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia.

The UCR remained the country's sole university until the Costa Rica Institute of Technology (Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica) and the National University of Costa Rica (Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica) were opened by the government in 1972 and 1973, respectively. Five years later, in 1979, another public university opened: the Distance State University (Universidad Estatal a Distancia), modeled after the British Open University. Today, Costa Rica has five public universities (the fifth being the newly created National Technical University) and approximately fifty three private ones, but the UCR remains the largest and most well funded institution.