Jorge Enrique Whistles/Director of University EAN
Photo: Particular file

`The greater challenge of the education superior is financiación', affirms to Jorge Enrique Whistles, director of the EAN. It explains accreditation of high quality received from the Mineducación.

University EAN officially entered to the select circle of institutions of education superior with the institutional accreditation of High Quality of the Ministry of Education, recognition that will have use by 4 years.

Jorge Enrique Whistles, director of the EAN, spoke with time on this important step and the future of the university.

What importance has this accreditation?

It is a recognition to the integrality of the quality of University EAN, not only at level national, but international, because this accreditation serves like letter of presentation in the country and the outside.

The accreditation, in addition, is a signal of confidence on the part of the State, that gives impulse to the projects that we developed.

Which were the evaluated criteria?

The evaluating committee was conformed by an interdisciplinary group that analyzed the infrastructure, the educational quality, the relevance of the programs, the percentage of withdrawn tie indeed to the labor life and the other accreditations.

In this case the certification that we had obtained from the ACBSP, in the 2008 was determining. Although in all these aspects we obtained excellent results, we know that still we have left a way to cross.

Which is the greater challenge of the education superior?

I believe that the greater obstacle is the financing problems. The pyramidal form of the socioeconomic distribution of the country causes that the access problems are deepened. Whereas in Colombia there is a good supply of institutions and training programs, the people who occupy the base of that pyramid, the majority, cannot accede to the education because they have neither the resources nor the forms to finance them.

What is making the EAN to contribute to a solution?

One of our majors bets has to do at a distance with the programs. A way to extend the cover is arriving at the places more separating by means of Internet.

We know we can obtain that it without neglecting the quality and, this way, to affect the cover positively.

Which is the future, after the accreditation?

We have drawn up a route with a view to the 2018. Today, our institution counts on 56 programs, between predegrees, masters and doctorates, that take care of the needs of 6,700 students.

For the 2018, we hoped to have a total of 70 programs and to duplicate the number of students. That will be possible thanks to an investment that will double the budgetary resources at present, of 8,000 million weights.