Universidad EAFIT

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

EAFIT
Escuela de Administración, Finanzas y Tecnología


Established:	1960
Type:	Private
Principal:	Juan Luis Mejía Arango
Students:	9,200
Undergraduates:	7,890
Postgraduates:	1,310
Location:	Medellín, Antioquia, Colombia
Website:	www.eafit.edu.co

EAFIT University (Spanish "Universidad Eafit"), is a Colombian college located in El Poblado Distric - Medellín, being one of the most prestigious superior educational centers of the nation and the Antioquia State. This private university was created by the enterprise groups of Medellín in order to create a professional background for the development industrial process of Colombia.

It was approved by the Ministry of Education on May 6, 1971 and it has three branches in Bogotá, Pereira and Rionegro. The word Eafit is a Spanish abbreviation for Escuela de Administration, Finanzas y Tecnologías" that is translated as "Administration, Finance and Technology College".

[edit] History

Eafit University was founded in 1960 by a group of enterprisers of Medellín with the goal to create profesionals ready to answer the new challenges in administration, finance and technology for the development of Colombia with the compromise of its industrial organization and economical growing.

Professor Javier Toro Martínez was the first rector with a group of 59 students in the school of Business Administration. The Textile Technology, Industrial Programming and Mechanic faculties were opened in 1962. In 1996 Eafit opened its first branch out Medellín in Llanogrande, Rionegro with Business Administration, Civil Engineering and Systems Engineering.

The school of human science and humanities was opened in 1997, a peculiarity in the identity of the educational center as dedicated to economy. The new frontiers were beyond that with the creation of a musician school. In 1999 there were the Disign Engineering and Law. In 2002 the Mathematics Engineer, being the first of that kind in Colombia. In 2004 there were three new faculties: Engineering Physics, social communication and Political Science. That same year the administration took the decision to call the campus "Park University" (Universidad Parque) setting an ecological backgroung that includes a lake, a wood and a paving parking area avoiding cement in order to "let the earth to breath". The idea of Rector Juan Luis Mejía was to make a university integrated to the urban body of the city and then with a compromise for its enviroment. This project got for that reason the "Premio Lápiz de Acero" (Steel Pen Aware) of the Proyectodiseño Magazine of Medellín in the Category "Public Spaces".