How to get to Rafaela

Approximate distances by land: 

Buenos Aires: 560 km
Rosario: 265 km
Santa Fe: 122 km
Córdoba: 310 km

It is possible to fly with Aerolíneas Argentinas from Aeroparque of Buenos Aires (AEP) to Santa Fe Metropolitan Airport (SFN) located in Sauce Viejo, 110 km from Rafaela. From there, Rafaela is reached by land.

See Rafaela in Google Earth
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Our foundations

UNRaf is an Argentinian Public University, part of the 57 public universities that make up the Argentinian University System, recognized worldwide for its academic excellence, its scientific and technical solidity and its inclusive nature.

It was created on December 3rd, 2014 by Law 27062, a norm unanimously sanctioned by the Honorable Senate of the Nation. The authorship of the project for the creation of this young university corresponds to Mg. Omar Perotti, who was three times City Mayor of Rafaela in the periods 1991 - 1995 and 2003-2007 and 2007-2011. Subsequently, he was elected governor of the Province of Santa Fe from 2019 to 2023.

UNRaf is located in the city of Rafaela in the Province of Santa Fe. With 110,000 inhabitants, this city and its area of influence, made up of multiple localities in the provinces of Santa Fe, Córdoba and Santiago del Estero, are part of the humid pampas region, the productive heart of the Argentine Republic, globally known for its agricultural, livestock and industrial wealth. In addition, Rafaela is a strategic point in the commercial productive corridor of Argentina and neighboring countries.

Learn more about our history

Our Values

UNRaf is inspired by social values that have marked the history of regional development. Heir to the legacy of thousands of immigrants who, at the end of the 19th century, founded the first agricultural colonies that today are towns and cities, this University takes that legacy for its own institutional identity.

Our logo symbolizes this heritage through the representation of a windmill, a technology that is recognized in the region as a symbol of human labor in the vast plains inhabited by the first colonizing families. The windmill made it possible to extract groundwater without the need for any other form of energy than the wind power provided by the frequent winds in the geography of the Argentine plains. The availability of water allowed the establishment of rural livestock and crop farms, which later led to industrial development.

In short, the windmill is a symbol of progress. This technology contributed to the development of industrious communities that organized themselves to promote associations and institutions with education as a fundamental pillar. This meaning was captured by the institutional image of UNRaf and quickly assimilated by the young university community.

This institutional identity is expressed in 4 perspectives that include values that project UNRaf as a dynamic institution, strongly linked to the productive social fabric of the territory in which it is inserted, and committed to academic, scientific and citizen development.

Our identity represented in icons

A university in continuous growth

 UNRaf has an academic offer integrated by innovative careers with a strong presence of new technologies in its curricular spaces and laboratory practices.

The permanent transformations driven by new forms of work organization and the development of new technologies present the challenge of anticipating new professional profiles and offering training projected into the future.

In this sense, UNRaf offers technical, undergraduate, engineering, diploma and postgraduate courses that face this challenge from each training space, installing internationalization, environmental care and gender equity as cross-cutting elements.

These courses are transdisciplinary linked through three faculties: Professional Studies; Technologies and Innovation for Development; and Social Sciences and Humanities.

Research applied to the territory

In 2017, only three years after its creation, UNRaf launched UNRaf Tec, the Center for Applied Research. The early creation of this space expresses the proactivity of this University in science and technology linked to the territory of Rafaela and the region. This
space promotes, generates and strengthens research projects together with companies and public and private organizations in all the required stages of Research, Development and Innovation (R+D+i), from the conception of the idea to the transfer and application of technologies.

UNRaf Tec covers a set of disciplines of high current relevance through specific laboratories linked to each other and, at the same time, related to the academic environment of the University. It has a staff of professionals that make up multidisciplinary groups capable of developing projects integrally and, at the same time, provide an environment of growth for future professionals.

In addition, UNRaf is part of CIT Rafaela, a Research and Transfer Center managed jointly with CONICET, the main source of scientific development in Argentina.

An integrated university community

UNRaf integrates actions that enhance the university experience of students, complementing academic learning with actions that add value to their professional and citizenship training. In this sense, it implements the University Welfare Plan: Más Universidad (+U), which aims to contribute to equal opportunities in access, permanence and completion of university studies, promoting academic excellence.

The +U Plan has a program with several lines of scholarships that address specific situations in which students need additional support. These scholarships are an impulse to advance. In addition, +U has an Internship Program that represents a valuable opportunity to link the University with the productive and institutional network of Rafaela and the region,
with concrete benefits for all the actors involved.
Among the concrete benefits of UNRaf's Internships for organizations are the possibility of identifying future professional profiles and having reliable and proactive people to reinforce their work teams. The participating students value the internships as a possibility to strengthen their academic trajectories with professional internships, generate work history
and a particular economic income.
Also, +U has a sports program for the practice of different sports, in charge of Physical Education professionals. UNRaf sports teams represent the University in competitions such as the University Sports League and the University Olympics of the University Council of Rafaela (CUR), and other local, provincial and national tournaments.

Three cross-cutting elements: global vision, environmental care and gender equity.

UNRaf develops all its institutional actions with the presence of these three elements of university management considered fundamental.

Regarding the environment, UNRaf incorporates content in all its careers and includes this perspective in the construction of new infrastructure and the incentive to use clean technologies for mobility and energy generation. It also develops training proposals and specific research and knowledge transfer projects.

For this university, internationalization represents a permanent process with a triple impact: it enriches the professional training of students, professors and researchers; it generates collaborative links with universities and knowledge centers around the world; and it promotes the transfer of knowledge that provides new perspectives with the potential for concrete applications for the implementation of local solutions and projects. Cooperation agreements, participation in mobility programs and language learning are expanding actions of this young public university.

The commitment to gender equity is manifested in the incorporation of parity of representation in the university government, incorporated into its University Statute in 2019. In the same sense, ongoing staff training is promoted and specific training proposals and courses open to the community are generated. In addition, this university implements actions to reduce the gender gap in the scientific and academic fields. Among these actions are the Elisa Bachofen Scholarships aimed at encouraging the enrollment of women in technological careers. On the other hand, UNRaf has a protocol for action in situations of violence.

The construction of the University Campus is in progress

The UNRaf is building its University Campus on a 25 acres site on National Route 34, in the southwest of the city of Rafaela. The project, in its entirety, is one of the most important works in the history of Rafaela and the Region due to its architectural scope and its institutional projection. It is being developed following the general guidelines of a Master Plan that was elaborated jointly with the Universidad Nacional de San Martín (UNSAM) as part of a cooperation agreement.

Each building has an environmentally conscious design aimed at minimizing polluting effects through the reduction of non-renewable energy consumption, the reduction of gas emissions and the efficient use of water. Thus, the projects include green terraces, photovoltaic panel plants, solar water heaters, and rainwater recovery and storage systems for its use. In
addition, they have natural ventilation and high natural light in the spaces, among other environmentally friendly aspects.

We are a university that grows, with our eyes set on Argentina and the world. With our heart in Rafaela.

We are UNRaf.

Rector: Dr. Rubén Andrés Ascúa
See profile.