University of Antioquia

Founding

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, Medellín.

The first classes were held in March 1803, programs for Latin and philosophy were available for higher education. 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)

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.

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.

20th century

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

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.

In the late 20th century, as part of its regionalization program, the university opened campuses and facilities in several regions of the department of Antioquia and established the University Research Headquarters.

Today

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.

The university has 228 research groups in the categories established by Colciencias (A1, A, B, C and D). In 2006, the university provided an investment of about $145 billion COP for research.

The majority of the excellence groups (A1, A and B) are concentrated at University Research Headquarters (Spanish: Sede de Investigación Universitaria -SIU-) an advanced project created by the university to promote a qualitative and quantitative transformation of its research system..

The SIU supports currently 36 research groups that are classified by Colciencias as categories A and B, working in diverse areas such as biotechnology, chemistry, materials science, genetics, environment, immunology, infectious and tropical diseases.

Along with providing facilities for the development of scientific and technological projects, the SIU encourages promotes interdepartmental research and cooperation with the larger research community.