At the time, existing academic programs did not fully meet the expectations of Antioquia’s business community and that dissatisfaction was the catalyst for the signing of EAF’s charter on May 4, 1960. Three months later, on Aug. 17, American professor Bernard J. Hargadon Jr. began teaching the very first class – Accounting Principles, part of the Business Administration curriculum – in a classroom in downtown Medellín.
From those humble beginnings, advances and changes were not long in coming. One development occurred in 1962, when the Instituto Tecnológico (Institute of Technology) opened its doors and began offering degree programs in Textile, Industrial and Mechanical technologies and Computer Programming. It was then that two more letters (the I and T) were added to the EAF name.
In 1963, EAFIT moved to its current campus, located in the La Aguacatala neighborhood on Medellín’s south side. It is there that the institution’s most important transformations have occurred, including its recognition as a university in 1971 and the cancellation of technological programs to make way for new fields of study.
The National Education Ministry accredited EAFIT as a high-quality institution for the first time in 2003 and in 2010 extended that recognition for a period of eight years.
Likewise, four schools were opened over the latter part of the 20th century: Management (1979), Engineering (1979), Sciences and Humanities (1997), and Law (1999). The university’s fifth school, Economics and Finance, was launched in 2012, and the sixth school, Sciences, came into being in early 2015.
Quality also has been a hallmark of EAFIT throughout its history. The National Education Ministry granted the university accreditation as a high-quality institution for the first time in 2003 and in 2010 extended that recognition for a period of eight years.
EAFIT, which retains its original acronym although it has branched out beyond its origins as a school of administration and finance, is currently a university that is carving out an important place in the local, national, and international spheres, not only with its academic offering but also with its research activities, continuing education and language programs, study centers, consulting services, and entrepreneurial initiatives, among others.
After 55 years of accomplishments and lessons learned, EAFIT continues to pursue the goals of its road map: preserving academic excellence, consolidating the institution as a teaching and research university, and expanding its national and international reach and impact. These are its main aspirations.