University of Antioquia

Royal Decree of February 9, 1801

The University of Antioquia was preceded by the Franciscan College (Spanish: Colegio de Franciscanos), which was founded in 1803 after King Charles IV of Spain issued the Royal Decree of February 9, 1801, allowing the establishment of a college-convent in Villa de la Candelaria, present day Medellín.[1]

The first classes were held in March 1803, in Latin and philosophy. On June 20, 1803 the council of Medellín bought land for the main building and construction started in August. The structure is known as the San Ignacio building (Spanish: Edificio San Ignacio)[4]

In 1822, once independence from Spain was consolidated, the Vice President of the Republic of Colombia Francisco de Paula Santander promoted the establishment of a new educational plan for the institution and, five years later, president Simón Bolívar allowed instruction in law.[1]

During a great part of the 19th century, the country faced political and armed struggles and the university was closed and occupied by belligerents impeding the institution's development.[1]

Once the Thousand Days' War was over, the country experienced stability and the university grew.[4] In the first thirty years the university reorganized its curriculum, redesigned some of the buildings, acquired bibliographic material and employed renowned professors.[1][4]

University City (Spanish: Ciudad Universitaria) was built in the 1960s with debt and international aid. This allowed the increase in the numbers of both students and professors and the creation of new faculties and academic programs.[1]

UdeA started in the mid-1990s a regionalization program to offer higher education in other municipalities within the department of Antioquia, reaching 11 regional campuses outside of Medellín.[3]

In 2004 the university established the University Research Headquarters (Spanish: Sede de Investigación Universitaria (SIU)) an advanced project to promote a qualitative and quantitative transformation of its research system. Through the SIU, the University plans to contribute to society by using research, innovation and technological development for the construction of a fairer and more competitive Colombia.[10]

Built in the 1960s with an area of 23.75 hectares (58.7 acres),[2] University City is the main campus of the university. The campus contains eight faculties, three schools, three institutes and the Administrative Building (Spanish: Edificio Administrativo).[11][12] It hosts the University Museum (Spanish: Museo Universitario), the University Theater(Spanish: Teatro Universitario), the Central Library (Spanish: Biblioteca Central) and the Sport Unit (Spanish: Unidad Deportiva).[13]

Institute of Nutrition, Citadel Robledo

With an area of 89 hectares (220 acres),[2] Citadel Robledo hosts the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, the School of Nutrition, Veterinary Clinic and the Institute of Physical Education.[11] The campus library is widely known for its collections in veterinary medicine and zootechnics.

It also contains a sport unit with two football pitches, a pool, two basketball/futsal courts and a handball court.[13]

Faculty of Medicine, Health Area

This area hosts the Nursing, Dentistry, Medicine and Public Health faculties, near the St Vincent de Paul University Hospital (Spanish: Hospital Universitario San Vicente de Paúl).[13]

San Ignacio Building

The historical campus of the university was declared a national monument in 1982.[14] It hosts seven exhibition halls, ten lecture rooms, one movie theater, two computer labs, one restaurant, one multipurpose room and one auditorium.[15]

In the 1990s the university started a regionalization plan to increase access to higher education across the department.[16] The university opened campuses in Amalfi, Andes, Caucasia, Carmen de Viboral, Envigado, Puerto Berrío, Santa Fe de Antioquia, Segovia, Sonsón, Turbo and Yarumal,[3] covering all of the subregions of Antioquia.

In 2011, the Ministry of Education gave UdeA the award for the best regionalization experience in higher education.[17]

The undergraduate admission is done through a knowledge test, which is conducted twice a year. The entrance examination is an instrument that measured some basic skills and knowledge that have been obtained is in high school. It is a general aptitude test and as such does not evaluate the applicant regarding the career you want to enter.

The exam consists of two components, Reading Proficiency Test (Spanish) and Logical Reasoning Test (Mathematical Logic) and is equal to the candidates of all programs except for the Faculty of Arts.

To be eligible you must pass a minimum cutoff score and also be within the number of seats available for each academic program. For each semester, the test is often extremely competitive, meaning that the selectivity in admission to each of the academic programs is very high, in some cases presenting the proportion of applicants admitted less than 10%.

In graduate school admission is as complex as in the undergraduate. For general graduate requirements differ depending on the title to obtain and the academic unit in which you want to be done. In general at all levels requires the mastery of a foreign language and there are different requirements such as exams, interviews, proposed work and / or research, undergraduate grades, publications, awards, honors, work experience, research experience, participation in events, presentations, and more.