The university was founded by Simón Bolívar and José Faustino Sánchez Carrión, who met in Huamachuco; they signed the decree of foundation on May 10, 1824, before Peru's independence from Spain.

On 23 November 1831 the Government appointed as supreme patron of the University to St. Thomas and St. Rose of Lima, where it ran.

The first classes were Dogmatic and Moral Theology, Canons and Laws, Anatomy and Medicine, Philosophy and Mathematics.

The first academic degrees awarded by UNT were those of Bachelor, Master and Doctor of Laws and Sacred Canons.

From Its classrooms exited the universal poet César Vallejo in 1916, the first political philosopher Antenor Orregoin 1928, Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre, Eduardo González Viaña, Carlos Hugo Garrido Chalén, among others.