Universidad de la Costa: Meet the Rector

For us internationalization, in general, is a transversal subject. It touches all our four pillars. Our goal is to be an international university, and in order to achieve that we also need international students. We have students from Brazil and from Argentina, for example, that only come for one semester or for a short visit, but all the input that they bring us, the different points of view and different cultures are excellent for us.

We live in a global world, so we want to be in contact with other countries and culture as much as possible. We have a very transparent policy in all our four pillars: everything that we do, we must do it with an international view.

What policies or strategies are you going to take to entice more international students?

We’re going to offer more courses in English. While studying the new models of universities we have found out that the new generation likes to travel. So, with English being the universal language, we need to offer more courses in this language. 

We will also work with other universities – three or four – here in Barranquilla to build a student residence, to make Barranquilla a more attractive destination, especially because housing is one of the main restrictions students face going to another country.

We also aim to be more visible. We started a strong campaign for our university not only in Colombia, but on the international level. Barranquilla is a city that has become very popular – starting with Shakira. We are close to Cartagena, which is the most touristic city in Colombia. And on the other side, about an hour’s drive, we have Santa Marta, which has the best beaches in Colombia. We want to show people that Bogota might be the capital and the biggest city, but the fun is here in Barranquilla. 

We’re a flexible university, where people feel they can achieve whatever they aim to do. We want to give them all the opportunities to get what they really want from an international experience.

We also want to be seen as futuristic. My main goal right now is to be a university where you can learn about innovation and develop an innovative mindset. We may not have all the technology American universities do, but we have a mindset that craves innovation. And finally, we want to be a place where it's fun to be, with great culture.

One of our main goals while working closely with QS is to improve our ranking position. I've been doing a lot of work to increase our scientific productivity, and I’m very confident that next year we will be one of the top 100 universities in Latin America. However, we still need to improve our reputation and be better known. That's why we're doing a lot of campaigns on social media. We're investing a lot on social media, like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, but we need to do more campaigns in English, as we've only done it in Spanish.

Colombia is in the middle of the world and is in the middle of Latin America, which gives us a lot of advantages. We are very close to the US, Argentina and Brazil, so we get a mixture of different cultures, meaning you can get to know Latin American culture as a whole and learn Spanish.

Why Barranquilla? Because it is the Colombian city that has grown the most economically, and it’s the most fun. We’re in the best part of Colombia, the Caribbean region, which means we have the best beaches nearby. 

Why Universidad de la Costa? Because we're going to listen to you and help you develop the competence and skills you’re interested in.