University of Valle

The University of Valle, also called Univalle, is a public, departmental, coeducational, research university based primarily in the city of Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia. It is the largest higher education institution by student population in the southwest of the country, and the third in Colombia, with more than 30,000 students. The university was established by ordinance No. 12 of 1945, by the Departmental Assembly as the Industrial University of Valle del Cauca (Spanish: Universidad Industrial del Valle del Cauca), under the leadership of Tulio Ramírez Rojas and Severo Reyes Gamboa. The university has two campuses in Cali. The main one, known as University City of Melendez, is located in the southern neighborhood of Melendez and hosts the faculties of Engineering, Humanities, Integrated Arts, Sciences, and Social Sciences and Economics, as well as the institutes of Education and Pedagogy, and Psychology. Its second one, located in the centric San Fernando neighborhood, hosts the faculties of Administration Sciences and Health. The university is member of several university organizations including the Association of Colombian Universities (ASCUN), the Iberoamerican Association of Postgraduate Universities (AUIP), and the Iberoamerican University Network Universia. The Valle, National and Antioquia universities form what is known as the Golden Triangle of higher education in Colombia, being among the most selective and competitive universities in the country. It is one of the 15 universities in the country to have received a high quality institutional accreditation by the Ministry of Education, through resolution 2020 of June 3, 2005. The accreditation was for eight years, making the university one of only a few to be accredited for such a duration. The University is considered a premier school in the country and usually excels in its Health and Engineering programs.