Caring for Public Universities: A National Commitment

Taking on the role of rector at the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional required a profound ethical, political, academic, and financial commitment to the university community. This commitment is inextricably linked to the responsibility of defending and caring for public education, as well as collectively building a dignified future.

Training critical thinkers to contribute to changing injustice and inequality is key to strengthening our university. We are convinced that respecting, guaranteeing, and reinventing individual rights, as well as deepening democracy, are essential to achieving this goal. Accordingly, we reaffirm the power of our pedagogical mission, which is based on pedagogical action, trust restoration, and recognition of plurality.

This year, we have focused on implementing three criteria based on the 2024–2028 Rector’s Program, “For a Pedagogical University that Cares for its Future”:

a. Devising care policies

b. Constructing the common good.

c. Maintaining justice at all levels.

The program serves as a roadmap for an institution’s comprehensive change. It envisions the future of our University over the next ten years, focusing on community, national, and international positioning; transparent leadership and management; recognizing our challenges; and committing to training new generations of teachers, young people, and education and pedagogy professionals.

To this end, we are sharing our achievements by identifying strategic opportunities to strengthen institutional management further, in conjunction with transformative, ecosystemic planning guided by a commitment to the common good, equity, and educational excellence.

• As a leader in educational policy, we have been recognized through the congressional approval of the Law on the 70th Anniversary of UPN and the 100th Anniversary of the Instituto Pedagógico Nacional –IPN–. Additionally, we have been recognized for advising the Ministry of Education on the new Ten-Year Education Plan and the National Civil Service Commission on creating a new teaching qualification.
• We have achieved an 116 percent growth rate by strengthening our comprehensive internationalization model. This growth is due to teachers engaging in international processes and forming alliances in Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Africa.
• A presence in the regions with nine professionalization and regular programs impacting 27,226 people in all departments of Colombia through critical social outreach.
• The university experienced the highest growth in its history, with 9,779 new students enrolling, which demonstrates the desire of young people and adults to attend a public university and pursue teaching careers.
• There was a 40 percent increase in the academic productivity of our teachers and research groups.
• The institution’s equity increased by COL$91.55 billion, and revenue grew by 21 percent during the 2024 period —the best results in 70 years. However, structural underfunding caused by Law 30 of 1992, as well as subsidy demands implemented by previous administrations, left us with a deficit in recognizing rights. We are gradually overcoming this deficit by providing temporary teachers with paid vacations and extending their employment to 45 weeks. We are also ensuring 11 months of continuous employment for research professors and providing social benefits that were not previously offered.
• Investments in infrastructure totaling COL$22.7 billion and an allocation of nearly 6 percent of the general budget to university welfare are included in care strategies.
• Through the IPN’s Inclusive and Occupational Learning section, the University’s Typhlotechnology Center, the Manos y Pensamiento program, the Humid Room, the Support Program for People with Disabilities and/or Exceptional Talents or Abilities and their Families –Pradif–, and the Center for Studies and Services in Pedagogy and Family, among others, we are strengthening inclusion and diversity.

Our University recognizes its historical responsibility to address the country’s challenges, such as overcoming structural inequalities, defending university autonomy, dignifying teaching work, revitalizing teacher training, and promoting a culture of peace that is based on differences, creativity, research, and respect for diversity.

As Philippe Meirieu said, “The university expresses the desire of a generation already in the world to care for the future. It cares for the future—a future for our children and for the world. It is a future for our children that preserves the integrity of the world. It is a future for the world that will support our children so they can sustain it” (2006, p. 36). We emphasize the UPN’s leading role by training educators and reaffirming its mission as a public institution that serves the necessary changes of the present era.