Foundation of the Public University of Huila: Years of ITUSCO Fundación de la Universidad Pública del Huila: Años del ITUSCO

Abstract

For the first time, the study of the University of Huila is carried out, from a historical context of the whole where, when synthesizing sources of information that were dispersed, it is determined why it was founded at that moment and what conditions it to what it is today. It is presented as a contribution to the history of the region as it leaves the parochial mentality, to locate its content in the history of the country and the world. The idea of ​​an institutionalized university in the Middle Ages, immersed in the political, evolved to us and its current development could not be understood without knowledge of its origins.

The dynamics of the European continent marks our educational, economic, political, cultural and scientific path. Features of this process can be found in the stages indicated, both through the consultation of primary sources and secondary sources that allowed access to documents and interviews, in an approach to the historical events that marked the emergence of the Surcolombiana University .

This investigative exercise tries to answer some questions that arose in one of the stages of the research such as: Where does the university arise as an institution of higher education and in what political, socio-economic, cultural, scientific and educational context? What social, political and cultural factors determined the emergence of the university in Colombia? In what circumstances of the national context is approved the educational project of creation of the Surcolombiana University? What real and felt needs motivated the idea of ​​the creation of the Surcolombiana University? What was the dynamics of the department of Huila in the period in which the creation of the university for the region begins to take shape? What did the Surcolombian University Institute, ITUSCO, represent as a launching platform for the creation of the university? What was the initial project that proposed the creation of the University and why did it take eleven years to become a reality? In what way did the populations orient educational or legislative proposals in favor of the creation of the university? What was happening in the national context at the time when the educational project that gives way to Law 55 and, finally, to ITUSCO is presented? The historical research work is divided into three sections.