University of the Andes, Colombia
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| Established | November 16, 1948 |
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| Type | Private |
| Principal | Carlos Angulo Galvis |
| Staff | 1.020 |
| Undergraduates | 9.300 |
| Postgraduates | 3.200 |
| Location | Bogotá, Colombia |
| Campus | Urban, 14,37 acres (0,06 km²) |
| Nickname | Los Andes |
| Mascot | Séneca, the goat |
| Website | www.uniandes.edu.co |
Located in Bogotá, the Universidad de Los Andes (Spanish for "University of the Andes") is one of the most important, if not the most important university in Colombia. Founded in 1948, it currently offers a wide range of career paths, including Engineering, Economics, Psychology,Philosophy, Physics, Mathematics, Laws, Management, Music, Social Sciences, Art and Medicine.
In the latter years has been recognized for his high academic level and is rewarded as one of the best universities of Colombia.
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[edit] The University
The Universidad de los Andes starts the new millennium as a center of recognized academic excellence in Colombia and Latin America. Since its foundation in 1948, the University has taken up a commitment to the formation of an intellectual, technical and humanist elite, which has played an active role in the production of thought, science and progress in this country. It has taken up the leadership of a mission to face the challenges of the internationalization of Colombian economy, and of technical, social and cultural changes now occurring around the world. The university hosts several international symposia and a number of exchange programs with top notch institutions in Europe and the U.S
The University is an autonomous and independent institution which fosters pluralism, diversity, dialogue, debate, criticism, tolerance and respect for ideas, beliefs and values of its members. Also, it seeks academic excellence, and offers its students a critical and ethical formation designed to strengthen their awareness of a their social and civic responsibilities, and their commitment to the analysis of the problems of their country, and the quest for its solutions. For this purpose, Los Andes develops and implements innovative methods in teaching and research, designed to make students the main agent of their own formation, and to solve problems presented to them with creativity and responsibility.
Further, as part of its encouragement of integrated formation, the University provides an interdisciplinary environment with all the flexibility required for the integration of the arts, the sciences, technology and the humanities.
[edit] The Faculties
School of Management[1]
Faculty of Architecture and Design Department of Architecture[2] Department of Design[3]
Faculty of Arts and Humanities[4] (in Spanish)
CIDER[5]
Faculty of Sciences[6] (in Spanish)
Faculty of Social Sciences[7] (in Spanish)
Faculty of Law[8] (in Spanish)
Faculty of Economics[9] (in Spanish)
"Escuela de Gobierno Alberto Lleras Camargo"[10]
Faculty of Engineering[11]
Faculty of Medicine[12] (in Spanish)
[edit] Academic Programs
The Universidad de los Andes offers 27 Undergraduate Programs, 30 Specialized Degree Programs, 20 Master Programs and 5 Doctorate Programs (Physics, Biology, Mathematics, Management and Engineering).
- Undergraduate Programs
- Specialized Graduate Programs
- Master's Programs
- Doctorate Programs
[edit] Academic Resources
The University offers their members support through tools such as a library system, computer resources and services, laboratories, and specialized workshops.
[edit] Research
The University has 55 research groups through out all our Faculties and Research Centers.
[edit] Student Services
University Welfare
The mission of the Dean of Students and Welfare is to contribute to the formation of the welfare of the university community and the students, through the offer of services which match their needs and educational purposes of the University itself. Through these services, we also seek to respond to community needs in the area of comprehensive counseling, quality of life, and social responsibility.
[edit] History
On 16 November 1948, when Colombia had still not recovered from the disturbances following the murder of the presidential candidate Jorge Eliecer Gaitán -perhaps the most important of Bogota's history-, a group of enterprising and enthusiastic young men decided to offer new reasons for hope with the creation of an university. The leader of this initiative was Mario Laserna, a student of mathematics, physics and the humanities at Columbia University, who at the age of 24 convinced politicians and industrialists in Bogotá of the need to build an educational institution which would be in the vanguard of its day.
After the Universidad Externado (1886) and the Universidad Libre (1923), the Universidad de los Andes was the third non-confessional private university. The University distanced itself from the struggle between the political parties - the Liberals and the Conservatives - which at that time divided Colombian society. At that time, there were two kinds of university in this country: the private religious foundations and the State institutions, whose campuses were always just another battlefield for party warfare.
The university set out to form a technical elite which would close the breach which, in the matter of knowledge of scientific advances, separated Colombia from the rest of the world. Important academics, who had fled from the war in Europe, arrived at the University and spent their lives in research and teaching. From the first, the University set-up exchange agreements, at that time unknown in Colombia, with the universities in the United States.
The fact that from the outset the University proposed to offer a humanistic and intellectual formation for well-rounded professionals implied a genuine revolution in curriculum.
[edit] The purpose of education
Los Andes encourages the autonomy in its students.
The University is convinced that its formation should be a privileged opportunity for the members of its community to grow, develop and form themselves around the professions and occupations which they will be engaged in for the rest of their lives.
As a result of the intention to encourage an educational environment and based on an interdisciplinary approach and integrated formation, Los Andes has give pride of place to three basic objectives in the formation of its students:
- Autonomy
- Responsibility
- Broadness of mind
[edit] Who they are
Due to the qualifications, quality and the proportion with the students, the teaching staff is our greatest strength.
Average of 15 students per lecturer:
This ratio guarantees the best possible educational process. The fact that 530 of the 1134 teaching staff of the University - 49% - are full-time staff, is relatively exceptional among private universities in Colombia. Given the University's policy for academic excellence, they can call upon some outstanding professionals in Colombia to become a part of the teaching staff or research staff, in teaching Departments, or in Research Centers.
148 full time teaching staff have doctorates:
This fact shows that the teaching staff have a strong interest in research and their permanent training in teaching activities. Through audio-visual support, technical and multimedia programs for teaching, they have arranged to incorporate such tools into their class work.
[edit] Bogotá
the "South American Athens"
In 1882, accompanied by the British Minister Monsey and his family, the Argentine Miguel Cané traveled on mule-back from the lowland town of Honda up the mountains to Bogotá.
He imagined that the rough people he saw along the trail, the porters who carried wooden furniture and the boilers of steam engines on their backs, Quid enable the country to attain a rapid progress as soon as European Industries were implanted on Colombian soil. These hopes for the future of Colombia did not, however, remove a pressing doubt: "How was it possible for a people -a city, a civilized society -to live there, behind those gigantic mountain ridges, on those peaks that were lost in the clouds?". Only the passing of a piano on the aching backs of ten panting Indians gave the hope If reaching his goal. A hope that was confirmed within a short time of his arrival:
“After traveling by mule, along primitive mountain trails and sleeping in inns out of the Middle Ages, it is very strange to reach a city of refined literary taste, an exquisite social civility, where the la test advances of science are discussed a though one were in the heart of a European academy”.
A little more than a century has passed since Cané faced up to the challenge of visiting what he called "the region of the candor", sufficient time to change the aspect of Bogotá.
That refined literary and social culture which surprised the 19th century so much won for this city the title of the "South American Athens", a term which is recalled today with incredulity. Nowadays it is a city of seven million inhabitants, in a country, torn by wars and infernal disputes, which is far removed from our 19th century dream of making ourselves into a real nation Even so, if señor Cané were to repeat his visit today, he would doubtless fin! himself at home in the historic center of Bogotá, the last redoubt that is conserved of the city of that time and, paradoxically, a good example of the city of today.
[edit] External links
- Los Andes University homepage (in Spanish)
- Fundación Santa Fe de Bogotá (in Spanish)
