The University of San Martín de Porres was founded as a private Roman Catholic institution by the Dominican order in 1962 and was named after the 19th century Peruvian lay brother canonised that year by Pope John XXIII, Martin De Porres.
It has grown in less than half a century to be the largest university in Peru.
In 2018 it had around 30,000 students spread around numerous sites in Lima and other parts of the country, in particular Chiclayo and Arequipa. The sites are networked by more than 10,000 computers.
Operating under the motto "Love what you do, learn how", it was the 14th institution to be accredited by the national authority Sunedu and was given a six-year license in 2017. Its rector Jose Antonio Chang Escobedo has held the post since 1996, save for a five-year break from 2011 during which he served as both Minister of Education and, for a year, Prime Minister.
A declared aim is to be rated among the top 100 universities in the world, and top 10 in Latin America, by 2021.
The main campus is in the Lima district of Santa Anita, housing the administration along with the faculties of accounting, economics and finance and a dentistry school whose clinic provides more than 10,000 consultations each month. Medicine, engineering and architecture and law are based in La Molina; communication, tourism and psychology in Surquillo and obstetrics and nursing at Jesu Maria.
Around 10 per cent of students receive scholarships from the university, around 500 each year receiving all of their costs.
Following a common Latin American pattern, USMP is associated with a professional football club which plays in Peru’s First Division and has won three national championships. It is also one of the Latin American bases for world governing body FIFA’s diploma in sports management.
