The origins of the University of Costa Rica are rooted in the decrees signed in 1843, when the Casa de Enseñanza de Santo Tomás was transformed into a university. By the end of the XIX century, Costa Rica was an oligarchic and liberal country, whose policies focused solely on primary education. Therefore, this led to the closing of the University of Santo Tomas after 45 years of operation. This same decree created the higher schools of Law and Notaries, Medicine, and Engineering. Later, the schools of Pharmacy and Fine Arts were created in 1897. After 1890, higher education in the country was represented by professional schools and colleges that operated under the direction of their respective professional associations, as there was no higher education institution as such. During the first decades of the XX century, a few proposals to create a university were made, but they had no success given the policy that dominated the country. It wasn’t until the 1940s that the reformism in Costa Rica led by Luis Demetrio Tinoco prompted the immediate creation of the University of Costa Rica.