Universidad Francisco Marroquín

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The Universidad Francisco Marroquín (Francisco Marroquín University, UFM) supports distance learning.

Universidad Francisco Marroquín is a private, secular, university that was founded in 1971. According to the school's website, "the mission of Universidad Francisco Marroquín is to teach and disseminate the ethical, legal and economic principles of a society of free and responsible persons." The website also states that UFM "has the most rigorous entrance requirements in the country."

The institution’s main office is in Guatemala City, Guatemala.

Started by members of Centro de Estudios Economico-Sociales ("Center for the Study of Socioeconomics") with $40,000 and 125 students, UFM had a total enrolment of 2,703 students in 2008 with 1,832 undergraduate students, 446 graduate students, 425 medical/dental students, and also non-degree-seeking students (130 in 2005).

The university also offers instruction via the distance learning program, referred to by its acronym: IDEA. In 1998, the distance learning program had more than 10,000 students enrolled. The language of instruction is Spanish, but since many course texts and some lectures are in English, students are expected to be proficient in that tongue as well.

According to Milton Friedman, UFM is "...a first-rate university that is having a significant effect on the climate of opinion in Latin America. I know of hardly any comparable success story..."

UFM is an Internet service provider. It offers on-campus and dial-up service at lower-than-market rates to students, teachers and administrators, as well as to other academic institutions. All students have on-campus access through computer labs and the library. All buildings on the campus are connected by a fiber optic intranet and wireless network.

The UFM web site is at http://www.ufm.edu

UFM has a video portal: the New Media department has digitized and streamed classes, conferences and lectures held at UFM over the Internet in order to preserve this locally produced content, but also to support university distance learning. We actively assist departments and professors who wish to incorporate digital media into their courses by teaching various short courses in video and multimedia production. Additionally, we include many technical and academic value added features to the digital video, such as indexes,slides, and lecture notes. These developments permit greater faculty and student participation in the creation and use of teaching resources and mean that digital video is becoming an important tool in the provision of course material at UFM.

You can view a video interview about Educación virtual y experiencia en Guatemala (Spanish) with Dr. Florentino Sanz, Dra. Grete Pasch.

Sources:

• http://www.ufm.edu.gt (Spanish)
• UFM at a Glance (English)
• http://www.tripwolf.com/en/guide/show/19396/Guatemala/Guatemala-City/Universidad-Francisco-Marroquin (English)

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