Type Private Students 8,500 | Established 1979 Campus Puente del Común | |
Principal Obdulio Velásquez Posada Location Chía, Cundinamarca, Colombia | ||
The University of La Sabana (Spanish: Universidad de La Sabana), is a Colombian private higher education institution founded in 1979. It is located in the municipality of Chía, 7 km north of Bogotá. The university has been given the High Quality Institutional Accreditation by the National Ministry of Education.
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The university uses non-intellectual programs for students.
La Sabana has 21 research groups classified by Colciencias, the government office that certifies the quality of research groups in Colombian universities. There are also 20 emerging groups that promote “semilleros de investigación” (research “offshoots”) for students in all programmes.
The university currently runs 18 undergraduate programmes. There are also 31 specialization programmes and five master’s programmes: Master in Education, Master in Process Management and Direction, Master in Business Administration (MBA), Master of Nursing, and Master in English Language Teaching – Autonomous Learning Environments. The university expects to have 17 masters programmes and two Ph.D. programmes in the future.
University Campus “Puente del Común”
The construction of the present premises of Universidad de La Sabana—University Campus “Puente del Comun”—started in 1987 in Chía. This academic complex was planned to focus on the development of the surrounding area. The campus grounds cover 62 hectares. Of these, three hectares are sports fields and spaces for outdoor activities.
The Universidad de La Sabana is carrying out a project for the expansion of its campus and the updating of its laboratories and technological equipment. At present, over 32,000 square meters have been built. The buildings include 29 laboratories, nine buildings with academic and administrative spaces, and the Octavio Arizmendi Posada Library. The library currently holds 79,761 titles with 116,434 volumes, subscriptions to 245 journals and magazines, subscription to two bibliographic information networks, and subscriptions to 12 Internet data bases.
Other resources are:
Media Production Centre CPM: The faculty of Communication’s Media Production Centre CPM—where students are provided resources with the same standards as the ones owned by the country’s most important media companies.
Studium: A strategy for the development of autonomy in foreign language learning. The Department of Foreign Languages and Cultures has consolidated its leadership both in the university and in the country’s public and private sectors by means of educational initiatives like free courses, diploma courses, research projects and other academic programmes. The academic and student community of the university has, in turn, access to English, French and Mandarin language courses.
University Clinic: A health institution that deals with all medical disciplines and is a rehabilitation centre. The clinic is a centre for research, teaching and community service. In the near future, the Clinic will start an expansion process that will add another floor and enlarge its national and regional coverage. With more than 17,000 square meters of new buildings, the clinic will expand its number of operation rooms, its intensive care unit and the number of hospital rooms and other aspects.
Controversies
The university has caused controversy for its publications on the topic of homosexuality and the family. For example, in a document presented to the Colombia constitutional court on the topic of gay adoption, the institution´s Faculty of Medicine affirmed that: - the behaviour of LGBTI people "constitutes in some ways an illness", - that same sex couples are much more unstable - that homoesexuals commit more sexual abuse. - that children brought up by homosexuals have low self-esteem, stress, insecurity in relationships and having children, and problems with sexual identity.
The position caused widespread controversy in the Colombian press and was described as "backwards" by other leading academic institutions such as the University of Antioquia. and went against the opinion of the Colombian Government's child welfare agency, the ICBF
Internationalisation
Universidad de La Sabana engages in the internationalisation of research, teaching and social outreach.
The university’s curricula are designed according to international standards that allow for the global education of the students catering to their international mobility and for attracting foreign students. Within this context, La Sabana allows its students to complete parts of their majors at universities in Germany, Australia, France, Japan, Spain, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, the United States and Canada, among others. Some of the students also have the double degree option for undergraduate studies. They may also be awarded the undergraduate degree from Universidad de La Sabana and their postgraduate degree from an international university.
International students can participate in exchange programmes, internships, medical practices, specialisations and Spanish as a foreign language. It also promotes intensive English courses abroad.
The university has hosted students from Venezuela, Germany, the United States, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Salvador, Spain, France, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Israel, Iran, Italy, Lebanon, Nicaragua, Romania, Russia, Sweden and Korea.
Academics
Doctoral programmes
Masters programmes
Postgraduate specialized programmes
Undergraduate programmes