Universidad de Atacama
Logo: Claudiopp, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons2,048 people started an undergraduate programme at Universidad de Atacama in 2026, the 32nd largest intake of Chile's 50 universities, and 8,163 were enrolled there in all. Twenty years of it, 2007–2026, followed by the masked student id from school to title.
University · Enrolling in 2026 · main campus region: Atacama
At a glance
2026- Enrolled 2026
- 8,091
- First year 2026
- 2,048
- Titles 2025
- 1,436
Largest fields: engineering and industry, health and welfare, business and law.
- Enrolled 2026
- 72
- of them in a doctorate
- 26 · 36%
- First year 2026
- 9
- Titles 2025
- 15
0.9 postgraduate students per 100 undergraduates (universities: 7.3).
- Projects 2015–2024
- 96
- Among universities
- 33 of 49
- Fondecyt
- 38
Entrants, enrolment and titles
2007–2026Three counts of the same institution. Undergraduate enrolment is everyone enrolled that year, in any year of their programme; first-year entrants are the people who started; titles are the undergraduate titles and degrees it awarded.
What you can study here
2026 · mifuturo.clEvery generic programme with a page of its own that took first-year entrants here in 2026, with its campuses and list fee from Mineduc's register, and what SIES publishes on mifuturo.cl for this institution and programme: employment the year after the title, the band of the monthly income in the fourth year, and first-year retention. Each programme's name opens what this institution's own students say about it — who stays, who graduates, how long it takes — next to the programme across the country.
The first-year dropout column is PuroChile's own count on Mineduc's register: of everyone who started the programme here in 2023–2025, the share enrolled at no institution at all the following year — the three cohorts added up, never an average of three rates — beside the same programme across Chile. Changing programme or institution is not dropping out, and some who drop out come back later. “—” is a programme with fewer than 30 entrants here in those years. Across all its undergraduate programmes, 14.4% of the 6,063 people who started here in 2023–2025 were enrolled nowhere the following year; across every university programme, 8.1%.
| Programme | Entrants 2026 | Campuses | Yearly fee | Dropout, year 1 · 2023–2025 | Same programme, Chile | Employed, year 1 | Income, year 4 | Retention, year 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Técnico en Mecánica Industrial | 139 | 2 | $2.4 M | 29.2% | 31.8% | 79.2% | $1.6–1.7 M | 69.2% |
| Técnico en Administración de Empresas | 137 | 2 | $2.3–2.4 M | 24.9% | 25.6% | 50.6% | $1.0–1.1 M | 70.9% |
| Técnico en Minería | 124 | 2 | $2.4 M | 26.5% | 28.9% | 58.9% | $1.3–1.4 M | 59.4% |
| Técnico en Metalurgia | 110 | 2 | $2.4 M | 17.5% | 19.2% | 67.4% | $1.7–1.8 M | 73.6% |
| Técnico en Enfermería | 109 | 2 | $2.9 M | 18.8% | 20.7% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Ingeniería Civil en Minas | 96 | 1 | $4.3 M | 7.3% | 7.6% | 88.3% | over $3.5 M | 73.2% |
| Técnico en Instrumentación, Automatización y Control Industrial | 94 | 2 | $2.4 M | 18.2% | 30.1% | 78.9% | $1.7–1.8 M | 74.3% |
| Derecho | 87 | 1 | $4.7 M | 4.6% | 7.4% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Geología | 82 | 1 | $5.2 M | 11.1% | 9.6% | 79.0% | n/a | 83.2% |
| Ingeniería Civil Industrial | 77 | 1 | $4.3 M | 7.5% | 5.0% | 87.6% | $1.9–2.0 M | 87.1% |
| Técnico en Electricidad y Electricidad Industrial | 77 | 1 | $2.4 M | 15.4% | 25.3% | 84.0% | $1.8–1.9 M | 83.9% |
| Psicología | 67 | 1 | $4.5 M | 6.4% | 6.8% | 89.7% | n/a | 89.7% |
| Ingeniería Civil Metalúrgica | 66 | 1 | $4.4 M | 11.5% | 11.0% | 84.2% | n/a | 64.4% |
| Ingeniería Comercial | 62 | 1 | $4.6 M | 13.5% | 7.3% | 85.7% | n/a | 59.3% |
| Ingeniería Civil en Computación e Informática | 57 | 1 | $4.4 M | 12.0% | 6.1% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Kinesiología | 57 | 1 | $4.3 M | 7.3% | 7.0% | 65.5% | n/a | 80.6% |
| Nutrición y Dietética | 57 | 1 | $4.3 M | 8.7% | 8.8% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Trabajo Social | 56 | 1 | $3.2 M | 7.4% | 18.0% | 75.6% | n/a | 85.0% |
| Enfermería | 55 | 1 | $4.6 M | 5.3% | 5.3% | 91.4% | $1.8–1.9 M | 85.7% |
| Medicina | 54 | 1 | $8.5 M | 5.2% | 1.3% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Obstetricia y Puericultura | 51 | 1 | $4.6 M | 3.7% | 3.5% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Construcción Civil | 40 | 1 | $3.8 M | 13.2% | 21.6% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Pedagogía en Educación Física | 36 | 1 | $3.5 M | 7.8% | 6.9% | 80.2% | n/a | 83.8% |
| Técnico en Prevención de Riesgos | 34 | 1 | $2.3 M | 31.5% | 28.9% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Técnico en Geología | 31 | 1 | $2.4 M | 30.3% | 22.2% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Física y Astronomía | 25 | 1 | $4.7 M | — | 10.8% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Pedagogía en Historia, Geografía y Ciencias Sociales | 25 | 1 | $3.6 M | — | 8.8% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Pedagogía en Educación Básica | 24 | 1 | $3.5 M | 5.3% | 5.6% | 89.1% | n/a | 92.6% |
| Traducción e Interpretación | 22 | 1 | $3.5 M | 15.9% | 17.3% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Pedagogía en Educación Diferencial | 20 | 1 | $3.6 M | — | 4.8% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Pedagogía en Educación de Párvulos | 19 | 1 | $3.5 M | 10.5% | 6.2% | 84.5% | n/a | 90.0% |
| Pedagogía en Idiomas | 12 | 1 | $3.5 M | 11.5% | 6.9% | 74.5% | n/a | 78.8% |
| Técnico en Administración de Recursos Humanos y Personal | 12 | 1 | $2.4 M | — | 24.3% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Técnico en Contabilidad General | 11 | 1 | $2.4 M | 20.4% | 24.8% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Pedagogía en Matemáticas y Computación | 8 | 1 | $3.6 M | — | 7.3% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Ingeniería en Minas | 5 | 2 | $3.2–3.8 M | — | 20.4% | 80.3% | n/a | n/a |
| Ingeniería en Electricidad | 4 | 1 | $3.8 M | — | 16.9% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Ingeniería en Metalurgia | 4 | 2 | $4.8 M | — | 17.8% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Magister en Ciencias Sociales | 3 | 1 | $3.0 M | — | 15.6% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Magister en Tecnología | 3 | 1 | $4.8 M | — | 12.0% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Magister en Ciencias Básicas | 2 | 1 | $2.8 M | — | 13.6% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Doctorado en Ciencias Básicas | 1 | 1 | $4.8 M | — | 11.0% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Ingeniería Industrial | 1 | 1 | $3.8 M | — | 22.0% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Ingeniería en Automatización, Instrumentación y Control | 1 | 1 | $3.8 M | — | 20.7% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
1 more with SIES figures and no entrants in 2026
| Programme | Entrants 2026 | Campuses | Yearly fee | Dropout, year 1 · 2023–2025 | Same programme, Chile | Employed, year 1 | Income, year 4 | Retention, year 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Administración de Empresas e Ing. Asociadas | — | — | — | — | 20.4% | 73.5% | n/a | n/a |
Employment and income are SIES's own figures for this institution, published only where at least eleven graduates could be matched to a tax return; “n/a” is a figure SIES did not publish. Incomes are gross, in pesos of September 2025.
What it teaches
2026Everyone enrolled in an undergraduate programme here in 2026, 8,091 enrolments, by CINE-F field and SIES generic programme. Each tile is a programme and its area is its share; click a field's band to open it, or a tile to see that programme across the country.
Mean annual list fee of its undergraduate enrolment: $3,985,000 (universities: $5,901,000). It is the published price of each programme averaged over the students enrolled in it, not what each one pays: free tuition (gratuidad), scholarships and loans are not subtracted.
By SIES's generic programme, largest intake first. Only programmes that reached 10 entrants here in some year are listed; the rest are added together at the end. The change compares the first three years with the last three and is only given where both average at least 20 entrants.
14 more, and every other programme
| Física y Astronomía | 25 | 25 | $4,665,000 | — | |
| Pedagogía en Historia, Geografía y Ciencias Sociales | 25 | 26 | $3,635,000 | — | |
| Pedagogía en Educación Básica | 24 | 134 | $3,524,000 | −23% | |
| Traducción e Interpretación | 22 | 143 | $3,524,000 | — | |
| Pedagogía en Educación Diferencial | 20 | 21 | $3,635,000 | — | |
| Pedagogía en Educación de Párvulos | 19 | 134 | $3,524,000 | — | |
| Pedagogía en Idiomas | 12 | 102 | $3,524,000 | −8% | |
| Técnico en Administración de Recursos Humanos y Personal | 12 | 26 | $2,444,000 | — | |
| Técnico en Contabilidad General | 11 | 36 | $2,444,000 | — | |
| Ingeniería en Minas | 5 | 230 | $3,548,000 | — | |
| Ingeniería en Electricidad | 4 | 114 | $3,746,000 | — | |
| Ingeniería en Metalurgia | 4 | 92 | $4,780,000 | — | |
| Ingeniería Industrial | 1 | 117 | $3,527,000 | — | |
| Ingeniería en Automatización, Instrumentación y Control | 1 | 69 | $3,751,000 | — | |
| Every other programme | 8 | — | — | — |
14 programmes it no longer opens
Who studies here
undergraduate · 2026Its undergraduate enrolment of 2026, each split drawn over the same split for all universities. Every bar is a share of its own total, so the two can be compared whatever their size. How the first year came in is the institution's own declaration to SIES.
Where its entrants come from
2024–2026The comuna of their school, not of their home. First-year entrants of 2024–2026, followed by their masked id to the last time they finished secondary school before starting. Mineduc publishes no home address, and the school is where four years of their education happened. 5,927 of 6,201 (95.6%) have such a record since 2006; the rest — who left school earlier, studied abroad or validated their studies — are not placed.
92.5% finished school in Atacama, the region of its main campus.
| Copiapó | 3,692 | 62.3% |
| Vallenar | 938 | 15.8% |
| Caldera | 294 | 5.0% |
| Tierra Amarilla | 131 | 2.2% |
| Diego de Almagro | 115 | 1.9% |
| Chañaral | 104 | 1.8% |
| Huasco | 98 | 1.7% |
| Freirina | 84 | 1.4% |
| La Serena | 65 | 1.1% |
| Coquimbo | 32 | 0.5% |
| Calama | 31 | 0.5% |
| Alto del Carmen | 29 | 0.5% |
28 more comunas
Ovalle 27 · Antofagasta 26 · Arica 26 · Iquique 24 · Taltal 12 · Combarbalá 11 · Viña del Mar 7 · Quillota 7 · Alto Hospicio 6 · Salamanca 6 · Villa Alemana 6 · Monte Patria 5 · San Felipe 5 · Santiago 5 · La Cisterna 5 · Chillán 5 · Vicuña 4 · Quilpué 4 · Los Ángeles 4 · La Florida 4 · Maipú 4 · Talagante 4 · Valparaíso 3 · La Ligua 3 · Rancagua 3 · San Fernando 3 · Osorno 3 · San Miguel 3
70 more comunas sent fewer than 3 each, together 87 entrants; they are not named.
How they chose it
DEMRE · 2021–2026Centralised admission only. DEMRE's register of the universities in the national admission system: every preference of every regular applicant, and who enrolled through it. Direct admission — the way most people enter an institute or a CFT, and some university programmes — is not in it. In 2026, 1,650 applicants put a programme of Universidad de Atacama as their first choice and 3,863 included one somewhere on their list.
The order of the programme they enrolled in, on the list they applied with.
PAES scale, which starts in 2023; the years before are another test on another scale and are not drawn. Each bar is a share of its own entrants.
Who is still here a year later
cohorts 2007–2025Each year's first-year entrants, followed into the next year's register: still enrolled here (in any programme), enrolled at another institution, or not enrolled anywhere. It is SIES's first-year retention, counted on the published register; a cohort under 30 people has no rate.
Who graduates, and when
titles 2007–2025Each cohort of first-year entrants followed into the register of titles: the share with an undergraduate title from this institution, by years since they started. A recent cohort has a short line, not a low one — the register only goes to 2025. A title is any undergraduate title or degree, including the intermediate ones some programmes award on the way; the register does not tell them apart.
Horizontal axis: years since entry (0 is the year they started).
1,672 people started here in 2015. "Titled elsewhere" is a title from any other institution and no title from this one: someone who changed institution and finished there.
How long it really takes
titles 2023–2025Undergraduate titles of 2023–2025 in regular plans: the time from the start of the semester they entered (March or August) to the date of the title, in semesters, against the formal length the institution declares. Special and continuation plans are left out, because they take in people with earlier studies whose clock did not start at entry. 3,911 of 4,010 titles have the dates to be measured.
| Generic programme (SIES) | Titles | Formal, years | Real, years | On time | Real in Chile |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Administración de Empresas e Ing. Asociadas | 294 | 3.8 | 4.2 | 54% | 5.0 |
| Técnico en Mecánica Industrial | 217 | 2.1 | 3.7 | 56% | 3.7 |
| Técnico en Administración de Empresas | 216 | 2.1 | 2.9 | 71% | 3.3 |
| Ingeniería Civil en Minas | 213 | 6.0 | 9.7 | 2% | 7.9 |
| Técnico en Electricidad y Electricidad Industrial | 198 | 2.1 | 3.2 | 66% | 3.5 |
| Ingeniería en Minas | 194 | 4.2 | 5.7 | 51% | 6.0 |
| Técnico en Minería | 184 | 2.1 | 3.2 | 47% | 3.8 |
| Técnico en Instrumentación, Automatización y Control Industrial | 171 | 2.2 | 4.0 | 51% | 3.8 |
| Psicología | 162 | 5.0 | 5.6 | 38% | 5.7 |
| Técnico en Metalurgia | 162 | 2.2 | 3.8 | 28% | 4.2 |
| Ingeniería en Electricidad | 156 | 4.1 | 5.5 | 54% | 5.7 |
| Enfermería | 154 | 5.0 | 5.7 | 56% | 6.0 |
| Ingeniería Industrial | 153 | 3.9 | 5.6 | 44% | 5.0 |
| Trabajo Social | 145 | 5.0 | 5.7 | 54% | 5.0 |
| Geología | 119 | 6.3 | 9.8 | 3% | 8.0 |
| Ingeniería Civil Industrial | 98 | 6.5 | 11.2 | 19% | 6.9 |
| Pedagogía en Educación Básica | 94 | 4.5 | 5.3 | 34% | 5.4 |
| Derecho | 88 | 5.5 | 11.0 | 0% | 8.4 |
| Ingeniería Comercial | 77 | 5.0 | 7.3 | 6% | 6.1 |
| Nutrición y Dietética | 72 | 5.0 | 7.4 | 6% | 6.2 |
Programmes with at least ten titles in the three years. Years are means over every title, formal and real alike; "on time" is the share titled within the formal length. The last column is the same generic programme at every institution in Chile.
Where its campuses are
2 communes · 2026Where it teaches, not where its students are from. First-year entrants of 2026 by the commune of the campus they enrolled at.
Postgraduate
2007–2026First year of a master's or a doctorate, and everyone enrolled in one. At this level the register classifies into broad fields, not programmes.
Where its postgraduate students did their undergraduate degree
Postgraduate entrants of 2024–2026, followed back to their most recent undergraduate title. 14 of 31 (45.2%) have one in the register, which starts in 2007; the rest graduated earlier or abroad, which is not the same as having no degree. Of those found, 64.3% graduated here (universities: 29.0% stay at their own).
Left, where each entrant took their last undergraduate title; right, the postgraduate field they started here. Ribbon width is people. Only the eight largest institutions are named; the rest, and any contributing fewer than three people, are added into «other institutions».
| Undergraduate institution | People | % |
|---|---|---|
| Universidad de Atacama (itself) | 9 | 29.0% |
| Universidad de Concepcion | 3 | 9.7% |
| Other institutions | 2 | 6.5% |
| No undergraduate title in the register (before 2007 or abroad) | 17 | 54.8% |
Where its graduates go on to a postgraduate degree
People with an undergraduate title from here in 2010–2021, followed forward to the first master's or doctorate they started, anywhere, up to 2026. 303 of 7,335 (4.1%) started one (universities: 9.9%); 9.9% of them here.
Left, the field of the undergraduate title they took here; right, the institution where they started a master's or a doctorate in Chile. Ribbon width is people. Only the ten largest destinations are named; the rest, and any receiving fewer than three people, are added into «other institutions».
| Postgraduate institution | People | % |
|---|---|---|
| Universidad Andres Bello | 65 | 21.5% |
| Universidad de Atacama (itself) | 30 | 9.9% |
| Universidad Central de Chile | 28 | 9.2% |
| Universidad Catolica del Norte | 25 | 8.3% |
| Universidad de Chile | 17 | 5.6% |
| Universidad Adolfo Ibañez | 14 | 4.6% |
| Universidad de Viña del Mar | 13 | 4.3% |
| Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile | 10 | 3.3% |
| Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria | 10 | 3.3% |
| Universidad de Santiago de Chile | 9 | 3.0% |
| Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso | 8 | 2.6% |
| Universidad San Sebastian | 7 | 2.3% |
Research
ANID · 2006–2025The projects ANID (CONICYT until 2019) awarded with Universidad de Atacama as principal institution — the one that answers for the project. Each figure is a count of awarded projects: not publications, not money, not people, and a project with partners counts once, here. The year is the year it was decided.
Projects awarded each year
By OECD area · 2015–2024
By ANID programme · 2015–2024
What it is specialised in: Fondecyt's study groups
Its Fondecyt projects of 2015–2024, by the panel each was evaluated in. Specialisation is Balassa's revealed advantage: the group's share here over its share in Chile; above 1, it weighs more here than in the country. It is computed only for institutions with at least 40 projects in the window, and this one has 38: its shares are shown, its specialisation is not.
| Study group | Its projects declare mostly | Projects | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engineering 1 | ingenieria de materiales, ingenieria mecanica and ingenieria hidraulica | 7 | 18.4 |
| Astronomy, cosmology and particles | astronomia cosmologia y particulas, astronomia and gravitacion y cosmologia | 6 | 15.8 |
| Earth sciences | oceanografia, geologia y mineralogia and meteorologia y climatologia | 6 | 15.8 |
| Mathematics | analisis, ecuaciones diferenciales and metodos numericos | 3 | 7.9 |
| Biology 1 | ecologia y ciencias ambientales, genetica y evolucion and biologia marina | 2 | 5.3 |
| Interdisciplinary research | cambio climatico y desarrollo sostenible, biotecnologia y bioingenieria and otros | 2 | 5.3 |
| Chemistry | quimica, fisico quimica quimica teorica y computacional fotoquimica-fotofisica catalisis y coloides and quimica organica | 2 | 5.3 |
| Agronomy | ciencias del suelo, fisiologia vegetal and fruticultura y viticultura | 1 | 2.6 |
| Arts and architecture | musica, otras especialidades de la arquitectura and cine y fotografia | 1 | 2.6 |
| Biology 2 | biologia celular, fisiologia biofisica and inmunologia | 1 | 2.6 |
| Biology 3 | biologia molecular, microbiologia and bioquimica | 1 | 2.6 |
| Education | pedagogia y educacion, formacion inicial and didactica especifica | 1 | 2.6 |
| Law and political science | cienicas juridicas y politicas, ciencia politica (inc. legislacion ) and derecho publico | 1 | 2.6 |
| Linguistics and literature | linguistica literatura y filologia, linguistica and literatura chilena | 1 | 2.6 |
| Medicine G2–G3 (clinical and public health) | medicina g2-g3 - cs. clinicas y cs. de la salud publica, enfermedades de la nutricion y endocrinologia and anestesiologia reanimacion tratamiento intensivo medicina critica | 1 | 2.6 |
| Psychology | psicologia, otras psicologias and psicobiologia | 1 | 2.6 |
| Sociology | sociologia, otras sociologias and cambio social y desarrollo | 1 | 2.6 |
The newest competitions · 2025–2026
From the 2025 competitions ANID classifies every project by OECD discipline (the second level of the Frascati Manual), and Fondecyt evaluates in new groups. These 15 projects are read apart, by discipline, and are not part of the specialisation above.
ANID's historical register of awarded projects (CC0), cut at 31 December 2025. Institutions are matched to the SIES by name, with an explicit table for ANID's other spellings; foundations, centres and faculties with a legal personality of their own count as their own institution. Research across Chile →
The names it registers its programmes under
40 names · 2026The wording each student enrolled under, as the institution filed it. Only names with at least three entrants are printed.
25 more names, together 664 entrants.
Similar institutions
Other universities with a first-year intake of similar size in 2026.
Mineduc's higher-education registers (SIES): enrolment 2007–2026 and titles 2007–2025; Mineduc's register of secondary-school leavers; and DEMRE's admission register, republished by Mineduc. They are joined person by person through the masked student id Mineduc publishes in all of them for that purpose. First-year entrants are one row per person who started that year; someone who started at two institutions counts at one. Every figure is a count of records; shares and means are taken after adding. The name is the register's own and is written as it writes it. Every university.