Flats, rooms and residences near the UC

Flats and rooms for students near the UC

Pay attention to the location of its campuses so you can identify which one you’ll be studying at and choose the nearby neighbourhoods that are most convenient to live in. We explain it all here:

Where’s the Pontifical University of Chile located?

Its headquarters are located in Santiago, the country's capital. It’s not concentrated in one place, but has several campuses spread throughout the city and one in southern Chile, allowing students to choose where to live depending on the faculty they're studying at. Its campuses are:

Casa Central

This campus is in Santiago Centro, in an incredible neoclassical building that was finalized in 1917. As its name suggests, it houses the university's headquarters and authorities. The campus also includes buildings where several faculties teach classes, including:

• Law
• Medicine
• Biological Sciences
• Communications

The Casa Central also offers spaces such as auditoriums, the Aula Magna, a cinema, an art gallery, a bookstore, a convenience store, and a campus shop, as well as several canteens and cafés.

San Joaquín Campus

This is the largest UC campus—it’s even considered a university city—and also the most modern one. It’s located in Macul, to the east of Greater Santiago.

Fourteen of the university’s faculties teach classes here, including:

• Agronomy and Natural Systems
• Social Sciences
• Economics and Management
• Education
• Philosophy
• Physics
• History, Geography and Political Science
• Engineering
• Arts and Humanities
• Mathematics
• Chemistry and Pharmacy
• Theology
• Medicine
• Biological Sciences

Within these faculties, there are different schools and institutes.

The San Joaquín Campus has several libraries, numerous dining options, a bazaar, a bookshop, a medical centre, a gym, a swimming pool, and many other useful facilities.

Lo Contador Campus

This campus is situated in the beautiful Providencia neighbourhood, which is very close to the Metropolitan Park of Santiago. This is where the Faculty of Architecture, Design, and Urban Studies is located, so living nearby is ideal for those who’ll be studying there. It also has various libraries, several rooms and halls for events, a university restaurant, café, shop, and bookshops.

Oriente Campus

Also located in the Providencia neighbourhood, this campus is home to the Faculty of Arts and the Institute of Aesthetics. It consists of buildings that in the past were a convent, a boarding school, and a school run by nuns, which operated as such until 1971. At the Oriente Campus, there are also several dining options, a campus shop, a bookstore, event centers, multipurpose rooms, sports facilities, and the Immunology Museum.

Villarrica Campus

This is the only UC campus outside Santiago, Chile. As its name suggests, it’s located in Villarrica, a city south of the capital. It offers courses in Basic General Education and Early Childhood Education.

Best neighbourhoods to live near the UC

The campuses in Santiago de Chile are the ones that welcome the most international students, so we’ll focus on them in this section. Some of the areas that students choose most often each year to live near them are:

Providencia / Pedro de Valdivia Norte

Providencia is one of the most popular options for students who are going to the Oriente Campus and to the Lo Contador Campus, since they’re already there. It offers good public transportation (metro, buses), cafés, stores and services nearby. Keep in mind that the Pedro de Valdivia Norte area in Providencia is the closest to the Lo Contador Campus.

Macul

Living in Macul is ideal, especially for those who are going to study at the San Joaquín Campus, since it’s just minutes away by foot or by book and also has excellent metro and bus connections. It’s a calm residential neighbourhood with a safe environment. It also has a good range of places to eat, with small restaurants, cafés and fast food outlets at affordable prices.

Ñuñoa

Ñuñoa is another favourite neighbourhood for UC students. It has excellent connectivity via several underground and bus lines, making it easy to quickly reach not only the San Joaquín Campus, but also all the campuses of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile in Santiago. It has a wide range of bars, cafés and restaurants where you can meet up with friends or study, as well as sports centres, parks and green spaces.

Student residences near the UC

The Pontifical Catholic University of Chile does not have its own halls of residence, so this type of accommodation is not an option for its students. However, in Santiago there are private student residence alternatives that you can consider if you wish to live in this type of accommodation. Areas such as Providencia, Las Condes and Franklin have several options to choose from.

Erasmus in the Pontifical University of Chile

Here are some details that’ll help make your experience at the Chilean university the best it can be:

• UC has a very active community of international students and hosts UC Internationalisation Week, an event designed for exchange students, featuring cultural fairs, activities to get to know the city, and workshops to help students integrate into university life.
• There are student groups such as the Buddy Programme and sports and arts clubs that help you make friends and enjoy your experience in Santiago to the fullest.
• The university organises and hosts several events throughout the year. For example, every year the UC Fair is held on the San Joaquín campus, with student club stands, food, live music and sports, ideal for socialising and meeting people. There’s also the traditional UC International Film Festival.

FAQ about the Pontifical University of Chile