Since its foundation in 1973, the Universidad Nacional has covered the entire national territory, by establishing the Headquarters in Heredia and two branches located in the Chorotega and Brunca regions; this has led the UNA to build and consolidate a regional development policy aimed at improving access to higher education.
In line with this policy, the UNA participated, together with the other public universities, in the creation of the Inter-University System of State Higher Education in Costa Rica, approved by the National Council of Rectors (CONARE) in 2007.
The UNA participates in the province of Alajuela with the development of the following degree programs:
- Information Systems Engineering
- Industrial Chemistry
- English
- Administration

Since its beginnings it has grown exponentially, and today it has its own departments and/or departments integrated with other universities such as: Student Life, Innovation and Technological Management Unit, Registrar’s Office, and Finance. There is a student cafeteria and offices for each student association. The degree programs have well-equipped laboratories in the different specialties."
The SIUA-UNA has generated projects of great impact in different regions of the country, but mainly in the province of Alajuela:
- Entrepreneurship and training with different municipalities in the province.
- Free training for low-income students in the province in subjects that prepare them for the admission exam to public universities.
- National training and exhibition conferences with computer science communities such as FLISOL (Latin American Free Software Installation Festival)
- “UNA Programming”. Co-organization of the Competitive Programming Tournament. Developing algorithms to solve problems in a limited time. Participation of Costa Rican public and private universities from the country at a global level.
The Alajuela Inter-University Campus promotes the linking of strategic projects that have an impact on the territories and society to students and their disciplinary or professional specialties. This allows students to participate in solving problems related to their area of expertise.


It carries out joint initiatives with the Regional English Advisory Board of the province of Alajuela to train English teachers in the province of Alajuela, specifically in the development of educational technologies for language teaching.
Most of the graduates of this language degree program are part of the workforce in the provinces of Alajuela, San José and Heredia.
The Industrial Chemistry degree program a specialization in agro-industry, generating theoretical, methodological and technical validations with the reality of the context. It allows students to participate in the solution of problems related to the area of performance, strengthening the development of the companies involved.In terms of student admission and retention, by area of origin, it is clear that the Campus is fulfilling its objective of providing young people from the Alajuela area and its surroundings with a higher education that meets their demands and is of excellent quality.
For more information, please visit the following links: