EAFIT University

Universidad EAFIT
Escuela de Administración y Finanzas e Instituto Tecnológico
Motto Inspira Crea Transforma
(Spanish)
Motto in English
 Inspire Create Transform
Established 1960
Type Private
Principal Juan Luis Mejía Arango
Students 11,970
Undergraduates 9,500
Location Medellín, Antioquia, Colombia
6°11′59.04″N 75°34′43.27″W / 6.1997333°N 75.5786861°WCoordinates: 6°11′59.04″N 75°34′43.27″W / 6.1997333°N 75.5786861°W
Campus Urban
Website www.eafit.edu.co

Universidad EAFIT[1] is a private Colombian university located in Medellín. Originally founded by a group of the city's business leaders to establish an academic institution focusing on business administration,[2] presently the university offers programs in other cities of Colombia (such as Bogotá and Pereira), countries (Guatemala) and has established international partnerships not only with academic institutions abroad, but also with multinationals, such as Hewlett-Packard. The university was key in bringing Hewlett-Packard's[3] operations to Medellín, and functioned as its local headquarters before HP moved to its own building in the north side of the city.

EAFIt is the second most prestigious private university, accredited by the National Education Ministry based on the act 759 from may 6 of 1971.

The university currently offers 21 undergraduate programs and more than 100 graduate programs in the areas of Management, Engineering, Law, Finance and Economics, and Science and Humanities. Universidad EAFIT was approved by the Colombian Ministry of Education on May 6, 1971. It has three branches in Bogotá, Pereira and Rionegro.

The university has recevied two times in a row -being the first Colombain University in get that recognition- the institutional high quality accreditation, by the National Education Ministry, until 2018.[4]

History

Universidad EAFIT was founded in 1960 by a group of entrepreneurs in Medellín with the goal to create professionals ready to answer the new challenges in management, finance and technology for the development of Colombia with the compromise of its industrial organization and economic growth. Initially, EAFIT started off as a "School of Management and Finance". Later on, when two-year technological programs were offered, its Institute of Technology part was created. Finally, the institution organized itself as a university, offering longer, five-year programs, thus receiving its current name.

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 outside of Medellín in Llanogrande, Rionegro with Business Administration, Civil Engineering and Systems Engineering.

Biblioteca Luis Echavarría Villegas: EAFIT library.

The School of Human Science and Humanities was opened in 1997, a peculiarity in the identity of the educational center dedicated to economics. The new frontiers were beyond that with the creation of the School of Music. In 1999 the Product Design Engineering and Law faculties were created. In 2002 the Mathematics Engineering undergraduate program was created, being the first its 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 which includes a lake, a wood and a parking area avoiding cement to "let the earth breathe". The idea of Principal Dr. Juan Luis Mejía was to integrate the university with the urban body of the city with a compromise for its environment. This project later received the Premio Lápiz de Acero (Steel Pen Award) from the Proyecto diseño magazine of Medellín in the "Public Spaces" category.

In 2011, Psychology and Marketing undergraduate programs were created. In next years, programs of Biology and Sound Engineering will open.

High Quality of Institutional Accreditation

Accreditation is the act by which the State has issued the recognition that academic peers do checking the quality of the respective academic programs, organization, operation and enforcement of the social function of an institution of higher education. Institutional accreditation is, therefore, a high quality recognition is given to higher education institutions that possess the quality characteristics defined by the National Accreditation Council. Not all the colleges in the country have it, but only those who voluntarily submit to the process of evaluation by qualified academic peers, and successfully meet the criteria required to grant it. Since 2003 the process began, and until February 20099 just 15 Colombian universities, public and private, had been accredited as high quality. Eafit got its first institutional accreditation for a period of six years in 2003 and in March 2010 (resolution 1680 of 16 in that month) that accreditation was renewed for 8 years, considering peer reviewers "that meets UW in high quality requirements set by the National Accreditation Board for purposes of the renewal of the Institutional Accreditation ".

Added to this is that 17 of its 21 undergraduate programs are also accredited as high quality (which is distinct from qualified registry evaluates only minimum quality standards). Only 4 of their undergraduate programs are not accredited (and are not likely to be) because the National Accreditation Council has not yet defined the criteria by which the relevant processes should be performed.

As for postgraduates, Eafit not have any accredited, as the possibility of establishing graduate programs only took effect in January 2010.

Academics

Biblioteca Luis Echavarría Villegas from inside.
Building 38, housing the School of Science and Humanities.

Universidad EAFIT offers 21 undergraduate programs, which are dividided in 5 schools.

School of Science

School of Humanities

School of Management

School of Engineering

School of Law

School of Economics and Finance

References

  1. ↑ "Universidad EAFIT, English version". Universidad EAFIT. Retrieved 17 October 2011.
  2. ↑ "Universidad EAFIT, History (in Spanish)". Universidad EAFIT. Retrieved 12 April 2012.
  3. ↑ "Universidad EAFIT,HP offers its services from EAFIT (in Spanish)". Universidad EAFIT. Retrieved 13 February 2012.
  4. ↑ "Consejo Nacional de Acreditación de Colombia". Retrieved 8 August 2010.

External links