Arturo Prat University (UNAP) is the Ministry of Education approval for its establishment in 1984, and the following year constitutes a public law corporation dedicated to the education and cultivation of the arts, letters and science ( DFL No. 1 of 1985), and joined the Board of Directors of the Chilean, CRUCH Universities (Law No. 18,368).
Its history, however, dates back to 1962, when a group of graduates of the University of Chile proposed, the then Rector of the House Higher Education, Juan Gomez Millas, start higher education in Iquique, Tarapaca Region. Thus, in 1965 the Office for the Coordination of University Centers is created, and in 1966 was born in Iquique University Center of the University of Chile.By 1968, the headquarters of the University of Chile in Iquique is established and in 1971 begins the construction of the Campus Playa Brava, physical space where today the Central House.
