assembly for its ratification, confer academic degrees and professional titles approved by the faculties, grant honorary distinctions, recognize and revalidate studies and recognize degrees and titles from foreign universities when the university is authorized to do so. Rectorate: The Rectorate is the university's governing body consisting mainly of the Rector. The rector is the first executive authority of the university, as well as its legal representative and its institutional image. The University of San Marcos has had 216 rectors since its foundation, various characters have assumed the rectorship of the university throughout the viceregal and republican era of Peru, so the rector magnificus is also a symbol of institutional continuity since the foundation. until the present. The current rector is Mrs. Jeri Ramón Ruffner, a certified public accountant, who is also the first woman elected to this institutional position. Vice-Rectorate: It is made up of two vice-rectors: one undergraduate academic and the other for research and postgraduate. The current ones in charge are Carlos Carranza and José Niño The government and administration of the faculties and schools are in charge of the Deans and the School Directors, respectively. In addition, the postgraduate units of each faculty are in charge of their respective directors, with the Director of the Graduate School as the general director. Academics Admission Admission for undergraduate studies is mainly through an entrance examination. Although there are ways to carry out a special exam in the case of transfers, foreigners, first places in schools, and for the disabled, the most required type of exam is the ordinary one that is carried out twice a year: in March and in September. The entrance exam of the National University of San Marcos is considered the most rigorous admission exam for undergraduate studies in Peru, being statistically the most selective at the national level; This is mainly due to its difficulty and the large number of applicants that the university has. Precisely, this is expressed in the very strong competition that is generated in the admission of new students, with approximately 60,000 applicants per year for around 6,000 vacancies —divided into two admission processes: March and September, and which includes applicants who take the ordinary general exam and/or the pre-university center exam—, the selectivity ratio in admission being approximately 10%. Since 2016, the new evaluation method for each admission contest is the application of the cognitive skills test to the applicants