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The Universidad del Magdalena, created in 1958, is a public university whose main headquarters are located in Santa Marta, the capital of the Department of Magdalena, Colombia. It is a public Higher Education Institution, Accredited for High Quality by the Ministry of Education. This institution is the oldest, most socially inclusive, and academically comprehensive University of a Department -Magdalena- distinguished for its extraordinary natural, historical and cultural legacy and known for being the birthplace of Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Marquez, creator of the masterpiece “One Hundred Years of Solitude.” The University of Magdalena is governed under the principles of equity and inclusion, which is why in the last 20 years, the institution has become a nationally recognized model of autonomous, transparent, and efficient public administration. As a result, the institution has been able to focus its efforts on providing Higher Education to low-income or ethnic minority students, the combination of which represents approximately 90% of the undergraduate students’ population.
For more information, visit the institution’s website: https://www.unimagdalena.edu.co
Santa Marta is one of the most important coastal cities in the Caribbean region of Colombia. It was the first city founded by the Spanish in South America (in 1525), and it still has architectural features of the colonial time. A trip from Bogotá to Santa Marta usually takes 1.5 hours by airplane or 18 hours by bus. This city is full of history, at the crossroads between the shores of the Caribbean Sea and the slopes of the Sierra Nevada. This part of the Caribbean coast has a great cultural richness. Since its foundation, Santa Marta has been a melting pot of indigenous, African, mestizo, and Spanish cultures, reflected in a rich culinary tradition and high diversity of rhythms, languages, and accents. In the streets of Santa Marta, we can hear champeta, cumbia, merengue, salsa, and many other Afro-Caribbean rhythms and eat arroz con coco, arepa e huevo, bollo limpio, and many other tasty dishes, reflecting the flamboyant Caribbean culture and traditions. Santa Marta is one of the most visited cities in Colombia. The region around the city has a beautiful combination of mountains and sea. For the four indigenous nations that live in the Sierra Nevada, the Kogui, the Arhuaco, the Wiwa, and the Kankuamos, this mountain is considered the heart of the world, the umbilical cord that bonds the origin of the universe with the present. The system of ancestral knowledge held by these four nations was acknowledged as an immaterial heritage of humanity by UNESCO in November 2022.
