UNLP comprises the Rafael Hernández National College, the Victor Mercante Lyceum, the Bachelor of Fine Arts program, the School of Agronomy, the La Plata University Radio, the La Plata University Press and numerous academic centers for research and outreach including La Plata Museum of Natural Sciences, the University Public Library, the Samay Huasi Retreat for Artists and Writers, the Institute of Physical Education, the Astronomical Observatory and the Santa Catalina Rural Association.

The institution began operations on April 18, 1897, as the Universidad Provincial de La Plata with Dardo Rocha as its rector.

This forced the surrounding Province of Buenos Aires to cede the city, and as a result it was left without the greater part of its institutions.

On 13 June, about 150 youths from the National College, the Argentine Institute, and the Literary Society mobilized around the home of Rafael Hernández, accompanied by a band, in order to display their support.

The new university was expected to open that same year; however, the governor had not written the corresponding regulatory decree, nor had he even mentioned the issue in his final address to the legislature.

Due to this delay, a group of local citizens presented a request to the Ministry of Government on 5 May 1891 declaring their intentions that their children study law in La Plata.

Studies began on 18 April in the Banco Hipotecario building — the present-day site of the Rector's office — with a class on Law History given by Jacob Larrain.

From 1897 to 1905, it only succeeded in enrolling 573 students, owing not only to the low population of La Plata in its founding era but also to the lack of national recognition for the degrees it granted, which heightened the attraction exerted by the University of Buenos Aires.

This idea took shape with the transfer from a provincial to a national level, on January 1, 1905, of the Veterinary and Agronomy Faculty, the Astronomical Observatory and the fields of Santa Catalina (in Lomas de Zamora).

The events of Córdoba had little impact in La Plata that year, with the exception of the proposal by the University Federation carried out in July 1918 on the teaching conditions in the Faculty of Agronomy and Veterinary Medicine.

Nevertheless, beneath this calm façade was brewing an intense movement that was reflected in the pages of the student magazines Atenea of the National School, and Renovación of the University Federation.

In early 1919, the Upper Council approved the participation of members of the student body in the government of the university by a voice vote.

On 20 October of that year, a strike broke out in the entire university, ignited by the resurgence of the conflict in the Faculty of Agronomy and Veterinary Medicine.

Despite not having achieved significant changes, it maintained the ideals of reform through the group Renovación (Renewal), named after its goal of transforming the Federation of the University of La Plata.

The company was subsidized by the university and by the students that offered health care and dental services, as well as a community kitchen and a pharmacy.

He urged a return to the foundational view of Joaquín V. González, whereby university institutes and faculties were organized as in a sort of "federal republic", while allowing for synergy and a degree of integration across disciplines.

That vision is reflected in a university by a law that mandated: 1) studies of philosophy for all the graduates in the sciences; 2) the development of a series of courses that could provide a historic and ideological background common to may disciplines.

In 1943 to 1945 there was a common denominator for all the national universities: the tension between the de facto government and the reformist sectors that would conform later to the Democratic Union.

The quartet has premiered the works of distinguished Argentinian composers such as Alberto Ginastera, Ástor Piazzolla, Gerardo Gandini and Eduardo Alemann.

Its current members are: The Wind Quintet of the NU of LP was created in 1979 as an instrumental ensemble of the university's radio station.

The constellation of the Southern Cross is also featured, as well as the coat of arms of the Province of Buenos Aires, which is held in the hands of the woman who represents the city.

The hymn premiered on 23 October 1927 in the Teatro Argentino of La Plata to commemorate the centenary of the death of Ludwig van Beethoven.

It was performed by the orchestra of the Colón Theater of Buenos Aires under the direction of Adolfo Morpurgo, a professor in the School of Fine Arts.