Dear students, teachers and officials of María Cano! The visit of peers from the CNA to evaluate the program constitutes a historic event for María Cano, who will witness, and with pride, how the Colombian higher education system will ratify its recognition of the academic quality and professional solvency of our educational project.

Ad portas of the visit of academic peers, I want to thank each and every one of those who have contributed to preparing it, for several months now when we intensely began the process of self-assessment of the program, as well as students, teachers, graduates, businessmen and collaborators, among others, who will participate in it.

To all of you, thank you for your commitment to this institutional purpose.

We will dress up to attend, as they deserve, to academic peers, but more than to be evaluated, to present ourselves to the high society of quality. We have many arguments to prove it, and where we identify opportunities for improvement, we will take advantage of them.

The result of the visit will take several weeks, or months, and only then will we know if we will be able to have the accreditation, but the mere fact of having come this far, after the CNA advisers validated our institutional conditions, and we had advanced the process of self-assessment, should fill us with pride and complacency. That is something that very few higher education institutions have achieved.

In Portuguese, to say that “I believe”, it is said “eu acredito”, and as rector I “believe” in the work for the quality of all the programs of María Cano, because although the accreditation in Colombia corresponds to the confrontation of an institutional reality against some indicators proposed by the National Accreditation Council – CNA, in practice it is a belief in the disposition of the program and the Institution to continue improving, always, slowly, but without pause.

With my appreciation to all of you, also for believing in your María Cano and in our beloved Popayán headquarters, I wish you the best in this academic space that awaits us.

HUGO ALBERTO VALENCIA PORRAS
Rector