In the eight years following the 2014 university system reform in Peru, there has been sustained growth in the scientific production of the Peruvian universities, evident by an increased number of publications in indexed journals compared to the pre-reform period. Using administrative data, the article investigates if the growth of scientific production is associated with the research-strengthening conditions of the Peruvian licensing model. Despite the low institutional research legacy in the university system, there is a strong association of the regulation linked to the university reform process in the production of academic articles. This result is robust to different specifications. Equally important is showing that this change has allowed universities with a limited research legacy to enhance their research output, which could be attributed to their increased necessity to adapt to a research-oriented approach already established by other universities.