Escuela Politécnica Nacional

The Escuela Politécnica Nacional (EPN) is a polytechnic university in Quito, Ecuador, and a member of the Ecuadorian Network of Universities for Research and Postgraduate Studies (REDU). It was founded on 30 August 1869 by decree of the National Convention, on the initiative of President Gabriel García Moreno, and became the country's first centre for teaching and scientific research. After closing in 1876, it reopened in 1935, adopted its current name in 1946 and moved to its present campus in El Girón, Quito, in 1964. EPN holds category A from Ecuador's higher education accreditation bodies, and in 2025 fifteen of its engineering programmes received the international EUR-ACE label, recognised by Ecuador's CACES in May 2026.

EPN offers undergraduate degrees (carreras), master's and doctoral programmes, technology programmes through its ESFOT school and continuing education. It has institutes, research centres and laboratories, a Natural History Museum, an astronomical observatory and the Instituto Geofísico, which monitors volcanoes and earthquakes in Ecuador.

Students also have access to scholarships and financial aid, mobility and internationalisation programmes, clubs and student services. Admission to undergraduate degrees follows an EPN admission process with set requirements and dates, and students from other universities can apply to transfer.