General-Education

Basic-Uniandino-Cycle-Courses

CBU courses offer a socio-humanistic and scientific perspective that contributes to the education of responsible, ethical citizens committed to their country.

 

CBU courses have a competency-based approach and are distributed in three areas, as follows:

• Colombia
• Scientific thought
• Cultures, Arts and Humanities

 

Students must complete a minimum of 14 credits in CBU courses (seven courses of 2 credits each) that must meet the following guidelines:

• One course from each of the areas (three in total).
• Three additional courses, which can be chosen from the offer of any of the areas.
• A common and mandatory course on Colombia (CBCC-1177 Colombia: Space, Time, Difference).

 

All students who have entered the University must pass at least two credits with an ethics training component (Epsilon course). (see the regulations on Epsilon courses). ( RGEPr , p. 37)

Spanish-Requisite

The Spanish requirement is mandatory for all undergraduate students and must be passed in order to obtain their professional degree.

This requirement consists of two 2-credit courses: College Writing I and College Writing II, and two E-type courses. 

The University Writing courses  aim to develop the fundamental skills of writing and reading academic texts. 

The courses seek: 

• Read articles written for a specialized audience. 

• Write texts that reflect the processes of critical reading comprehension, by developing arguments that express a well-founded and independent position. 

• That students assume an ethical position, so that they are responsible for what they say and for the way they write what they want to say. 

The College Writing I course is a prerequisite for the II course. This requirement must be completed before the third semester of studies. 

The student can take either of the following two options: 

College Writing I: LENG 1511 or LITE 1621 

College Writing II: LENG 1512 or LITE 1622 

E-type courses  are intended to have students improve their academic writing to demonstrate their disciplinary understandings. 

College Writing courses must be taken before the third semester of study. E-type courses may be taken throughout the program.

Constitution and Democracy Course

In compliance with the provisions of Article 128 of Law 30 of 1992, which developed Article 41 of the Colombian Political Constitution, and in accordance with the guidelines established by Agreements 35 and 38 of the Academic Council of the University (March and April 2000), the teaching of the Colombian Constitution was launched at the University in June 2000, through the course Constitution and Democracy, the approval of which is a requirement for obtaining all undergraduate degrees. The aforementioned course is mandatory for all undergraduate students at the Universidad de los Andes, except for Law students, who, due to their discipline, study the subject in greater depth through their required subjects.

DERE 1300 Constitution and Democracy

3 Credits

This course constitutes a general policy of the University that responds to the constitutional mandate of teaching of the Constitution (Article 41) and whose central mission is to strengthen in students the critical knowledge and the capacity to act in accordance with values that as citizens it is essential that they possess for a responsible exercise of their duties and rights. At the end of the course, it is expected that students will have the knowledge and reflection necessary to allow them to qualify their intervention as citizens, by equipping them with tools that allow them to understand: the relationship between state, legality and society; the techniques, purposes and opportunities to responsibly exercise the claim of individual and collective rights; the techniques, limits and opportunities of citizen participation in politics; and the minimum legal and political frameworks for a responsible professional practice.

Foreign Language Regulation

The foreign language regulation requires students who entered the University in 2017-20 to meet 3 requirements.

1. English reading requirement

 

 

This requirement must be met before taking 80 credits at the University. To meet this reading requirement, students must take the English placement test administered by the Department of Languages and Culture to determine their level of English reading comprehension.

Based on the results of this exam, there are two options:

• Take the courses suggested by the placement exam and pass up to English 6 (LENG-1156) course, or

• If the result on the qualifying exam is higher than level English 6, this requirement is automatically fulfilled and the student will see the English Reading Requirement (LENG-2999) on their transcript with a grade of Pass (A).

Remember: Students who already have an international exam in English with the scores required by the University (see Table 1), also meet this requirement and do not have to take the qualifying exam.
 

2. Requirement for proficiency in a second language  

Demonstrate mastery of a foreign language, both in comprehension and in oral and written expression. To meet this requirement, students have three different modalities:

International exam modality

Decide which language you wish to fulfill the degree requirement in: ENGLISH, PORTUGUESE, FRENCH, GERMAN, OR ITALIAN.

• Train yourself by taking the necessary courses to achieve mastery of a second language required by the University of the Andes.
• Take one of the international exams in the chosen language and obtain the score required by the University (see Table 1).

Table 1.

EXAM	SCORE	INSTITUTION THAT ADMINISTERS IT	OBSERVATIONS
TOEFL (English)	213/300 (Computer Version) 80/120 (Internet Version)	http://www.ets.org	Institutional TOEFL results are not accepted.
CPE (English)	C	British Council International House
IELTS (English)	6.5/9	British Council International House	You can choose either of the two modalities: the general exam or the academic exam. The score required by the University is the same for both.
FCE (English)	176 or higher	British Council International House
Celpe-Bras (Portuguese)	Advanced (C1)	Brazil-Colombia Culture Institute (IBRACO) http://www.ibraco.org.co/
DELF B2 (French)	50/100	Colombian-French Alliance
DALF C1 (French)	50/100	Colombian-French Alliance
DAF TEST (German)	Level 4	University of the Andes
CILS 2 (B2) (Italian)	55/100 and pass all the tests	Italian Institute of Culture	Must be submitted one year prior to graduation date

 

Type of homologation

Students meet the requirement of mastery of a second language if, upon entering the University, they are proficient in one of the four languages mentioned: English, French, German or Italian, which they must prove by means of one of the documents or certificates mentioned in Table 2.

Table 2.

DOCUMENT	SCORE
IB International Diploma or Certificate (International Baccalaureate)*	- English A: Literature = 4.0 or higher - English A: Language and Literature = 5.0 or higher - English B = 5.0 or higher.
American High School Diploma*
ICGSE International General Certificate of Secondary Education	Grades A or B
Students who present a high school diploma from a country whose language is English, French, Italian or German.
AP English Language and Composition Exam* AP English Literature and Composition Exam*	4.0/5.0
BAC (French)**
Dutch Language Diploma (German) Grade 2 (Grade 2) **
Maturita (Italian) **
Matura (French or German) **
Selecta (German) **

*By meeting the second language proficiency requirement in English, the English reading requirement is also met.
**In the case of meeting the second language requirement with French, German or Italian, students must additionally meet the English reading requirement as explained in point 1 of this section.

English course modality at Uniandes

 

 

Students may meet the second language proficiency requirement by taking and passing English 7, English 8, English 9 (A or B), and English 10 (A or B) courses (LENG-1157, LENG-1158, LENG-1159, LENG-1160, LENG-1161, and LENG-1162), taught by the Department of Languages and Culture, after completing the English reading requirement.

 

All students who entered from 2017-20 must pass a type I course according to the offer of the Universidad de los Andes. 

• Courses I have learning objectives that are aligned with the development of disciplinary and communicative skills in English. This means that in a Course I the teacher and the students communicate in English (read, write, speak, listen). Both disciplinary and linguistic performance are assessed.
• The "Courses I" have support from the Department of Languages and Culture in their design, development and evaluation.
• Not all English courses taught at the Universidad de los Andes are valid as "Course I".

Free-Choice-Credits

All academic programs must include in their curricula a minimum of 6 completely free credits, called CLE, which students must take according to their interests. These credits can be freely chosen from the general course offering of all academic units of the University, as long as the student meets the academic prerequisites required for the course, if any.

Elective credits may belong to the same academic unit or to different academic units. They may be used to complete the requirements of an option, double programs, take various subjects or venture into extracurricular areas, among others. (See the Regulations for the validation and homologation of subjects). ( RGEPr , page 37)