The Contours of Economic Sciences Teaching in Eastern Colombia

Abstract

The academic programs that are part of the economic sciences emerged in Colombia in the mid-twentieth century. The relative weight of the existing programs in the academic offer and the student population grew in the last decade to reach 16% and 29%, on average, in 2020. The analysis in this text focuses on a sample of 13 programs from eight universities with high quality accreditation, belonging to the eastern region of the country, made up of the departments (states) of Boyacá, Cundinamarca, Meta, Santander, and Norte de Santander. Business Administration, Public Accounting and Economics are the three academic programs included in this article, offered by both public and private universities, in which the curriculum structure and duration of studies have notably similarities, but also visible differences in terms of the weighting  of the different training areas (basic, professional, socio-humanistic and elective) as well as in the tuition fees. It is observed that the professional area with the highest relative participation is Business Administration, which is reflected in the orientation of the program, followed by the Public Accountancy program. A lower proportion was found in Economics. In the concrete case of Economics, in recent years there has been an intense debate about mathematical formalization and curricular standardization, as well as training by results, a strategy brokered by the Ministry of National Education.