FACULTY OF MINES

Although it was founded in 1887 with the benediction of the national government, the National School of Mines was born from a regional Project, that is, from the aspirations of power and prestige of the Antioquia’s upper class members settled in Medellín. These people were Pedro Nel and Tulio Ospina Vásquez, founders of the Institute. Thanks to the Ospina brothers’ influence, the School would become the transmitter of the ethical and social values of the wealthiest sector from Medellín’s upper class. 

 Between 1887 and 1911, the School of Mines went through a very slow institutional development process, when it was first opened on April 11^th, 1887 with 26 students; in the following years, classes must have been frequently cancelled due to the lack of organization, of budget and even to the lack of professors and students.

The political conflicts that ended in the most bloody civil war that Colombians had lived until that period of time, the Guerra de los Mil Días (1000 Days War) —1899 to 1902—, also caused the cancellation of the regular academic activities. The School was closed from 1895 to 1904. In 1906, it was annexed to the University of Antioquia, responding to a regional reform that intended to promote higher technical education across the department of Antioquia.  Its autonomy was recovered in 1911 when the School was separated from the University of Antioquia, under the direction of its rector Tulio Ospina. Just by that time, the program that would characterize the institute was consolidated, and it would allow the institute to stand out as one of the most prestigious centers of high education in the country. 

Under the direction of Ospina (1911-1921), the School intended to form “virile engineers”, able to succeed over the obstacles brought by their job. The “scientific trips” – real hiking or riding on mule adventures—contributed to this formative objective and enabled the young students to visit and get to know the different regions and richness of their country. The trips included visits to gold mines in Chocó, to the Atlantic coast, to Bogotá’s savanna, to oil champs in Barrancabermeja and to the new emerging factories of that time in Medellín. Nevertheless, the high and strict norms of conduct: those of Work and Rectitude, were the ones that inspired the students to adopt the required qualities to succeed professionally.