The official origins of republican universities in Gran Colombia

Abstract

In the Gran Colombia times, after the Independence war, the leaders of the new National State considered that Education should be the first enterprise of the new order. So that, Bolivar, Santander, and the Congress of Cucuta planned the creation and consolidation of the first state universities and the so called Santanderin Schools.

In the year 1826, the education law determined the creation of the state universities signing between them: the Central university of Bogotá, the Central University of Quito, and the Central university of Caracas. In the same way, the Regional universities in Tunja, Popayán and Magdalena in Cartagena de Indias. In them, educative bases were done to the formation of the new leaders of the nation; Institutions were organized following the napoleonic model of the State universities and new plans of education were structured, and the academic and administrative organization.