Institutional Profile
Universidad de La Sabana
Colombia
The Universidad de La Sabana is a private Colombian non-profit foundation stablished in 1979. The university has 16 academic units and offer 24 undergraduate programs, 60 specializations, 42 Master’s programs and 9 doctoral programs. The International School of Economic and Administrative Sciences is the largest academic unit within Universidad de La Sabana and has 6 undergraduate programmes, 7 Masters (two of them shared with the faculty of psychology and the faculty of engineering) and one doctoral program in management.
Current and Pending Accreditation(s):
EFMD (EFMD Accredited Bachelor and EOCCS certification), AMBA, AASCB, ABET, CLAEP, and CARF
Dean:
Catherine Pereira Villa
GBSN Ambassador:
Carolina Velásquez Mora, Program Director of the Bachelor of International Business Administration
International School of Economics and Administrative Sciences
The International School educates people in management, economics, and hospitality, with an academic portfolio and experiential learning that promote a global perspective of business, comprehension of multicultural environments, competencies to adapt and make decisions in a changing context, skills for innovation and entrepreneurship, digital competencies, and responsible business practices. The International School conceives higher education as a process which encompasses professional training throughout life, in which in the field of management individuals learn how to make an impact in organizations and business environments characterized by entrepreneurial spirit, internationalization, modern forms of finance, innovation, hospitality, optimized supply chains, marketing and personalized consumer services.
In this context, the School’s main strength is based on integrating different academic fields, promoting values, and developing soft and hard skills which are required for professional work, increasingly characterized by interdisciplinary and complex managerial challenges. The International School offers flexible and relevant undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral study plans; a portfolio underpinned by a set of programs in various areas of management education; and graduates in the top three national rankings of job placement and salaries.
Network Engagement
Ways the institution will support the GBSN Mission to improve access to quality management and entrepreneurship education for the developing world:
Universidad de La Sabana will support the GBSN mission by sharing experiences and expertise in management and entrepreneurship. The Sabana Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center (CEIS) facilitates entrepreneurs and micro entrepreneurs’ incubation, through experiences to accelerate the entrepreneurial projects success. The CEIS is a unit where students, graduates, professors, administrative staff and entrepreneurship and innovation actors of the Influence Zone of Universidad de La Sabana find an opportunity to ideate, develop and enhance their entrepreneurship and innovation proposal, through actions that embrace human development (the person), the idea (entrepreneurship), and the value proposition (innovation). The University also promotes the development of Innovation and Entrepreneurship skills through the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Department at the International School.
Institutional Contributions to the Network Platform in the First Year:
The International School’s global strategic objectives include the developing of international learning experiences by enhancing and building a 360° partnership with our international networks and partners in teaching, research, and outreach.
“Therefore, the International School would contribute to the GBSN Network Platform by offering management courses in virtual environments according to the market’s demand with innovative pedagogical approaches supported by different methodologies such as Project-Based Learning (PBL), Challenge-Based Learning (ABR), Inverted Classroom (AI), Gamification and Design Thinking.”
Likewise, by promoting collaborative research projects with the corporate world, competing for international cooperation projects, applying for funding of regional and national research initiatives.
Institutional Engagement with Fellow GBSN Member Institutions
The International School hopes to engage with fellow GBSN member institutions to jointly develop research, collaborate on teaching and social outreach projects as well as creating and cultivating communities to share perspectives, learning and approaches related to management and entrepreneurship education.
The biggest challenge facing management in your community and how the institution addresses this challenge:
The biggest challenge facing management is to improve corporate competitiveness and sustainability, at the national and international level specially during the current situation. To attain the aforesaid objectives, the school’s portfolio and research contemplate a diversity of areas in management education and promotes interdisciplinary collaboration. The school means to enhance its impact on specific communities through teaching, the quality of research output and results as well as social outreach programs, that may contribute to improve social conditions.
Faculty and students have worked with entrepreneurs and business to create solutions to real world corporate challenges. Some research and experiential initiatives have contributed to the generation and consolidation of an innovation culture in people, companies, regions and countries; innovation and prototyping processes; open innovation (models, methodologies and tools); Innovation and business sustainability; Neurosciences applied to business activity – especially in the field of marketing and consumer behavior; industry-level processes, among others. Furthermore, we have the Living Lab a concept of collective intelligence around innovation ecosystems that focuses on the users and is based on a systemic approach that integrates research, innovation, and entrepreneurship with real-life training environments. The laboratory has 633 mts2 and has co-working, ideation, design, prototyping and negotiation spaces.Â
Program Highlight: ERASMUS+ Projects, IMPALA and ELANET
IMPALA in which the School is participating focuses on strengthening impact of Latin American universities. In 2020, the project was recognized as one of the best internationalization practices in Ibero-American universities by the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture-OEI. As part of IMPALA project, “Forma Emprende” and “Sabana como vamos”, were chosen as pilot programmes to be measured in 2021 with the impact assessment framework developed by the consortium.
- “Forma Emprende” is an International School ERS consultancy programme focused on strengthening entrepreneurial skills in 11 municipalities through student mentoring for local entrepreneurs. Students help train local communities to take advantage of income-generating opportunities and work in FORMA EMPRENDE as part of the Social and Sustainable Entrepreneurship internship, by mentoring the micro entrepreneurs in the region.
- The “Sabana como vamos” is a regional observatory of the Sabana region, in which three EICEA faculty members have analysed 1,238 Covid cases, used econometric models and created short and long-term probability models to identify actions and understand the pandemic´s behaviour in the region.
For more information about IMPALA, click here.
ELANET consortium, a capacity-building projects by the European Union. This project aims to enhance the capacities of 17 universities to develop local and international ecosystems for supporting social entrepreneurs.
For more information about ELANET, click here.
GBSN promotes the expertise and interests of our members by providing a platform to communicate news and open opportunities to global audiences and share how they are innovating in management education to the benefit of their colleagues around the world. The New Member Spotlight series serves as a way for new member schools to introduce themselves to the network.