Francisco Marroquín University (
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
: ''Universidad Francisco Marroquín''), also known by the abbreviation UFM, is a private, secular university in
Guatemala City
Guatemala City ( es, Ciudad de Guatemala), known locally as Guatemala or Guate, is the capital and largest city of Guatemala, and the most populous urban area in Central America. The city is located in the south-central part of the country, ne ...
,
Guatemala. It describes its mission as "to teach and disseminate the ethical, legal, and overall economic principles of a society of free and responsible persons."
According to
Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman (; July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American economist and statistician who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and the ...
, it is "one of the leading universities in
Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...
."
History
It was founded in 1971 by
Manuel F. Ayau, known as Muso. Its namesake is
Francisco Marroquín
Francisco Marroquín (1499 – April 18, 1563) was the first bishop of Guatemala, ''(in Latin)'' translator of Central American languages and provisional Governor of Guatemala.
Biography
Marroquín was born near Santander, Spain. He studied phil ...
, an early bishop of
Guatemala and translator of Central American languages, but the university does not follow any of his teachings or philosophies. Started by members of Center for Economic and Social Studies with $40,000 and 125 students, UFM counted 2700 undergraduate students and 1500 graduate students as of 2009. The philosophy statement says that "universities need to place themselves beyond the conflicts of their time so that science and academic freedom – which humankind will need at all times – may be preserved."
Degrees
In Guatemala, as in most of the rest of Latin America, the educational system concentrates students in their academic or professional discipline from the time of admission. Following secondary school, students are admitted to a particular school or department and, beginning the first year, they follow a prescribed program leading to a degree.
Undergraduate
Licenciatura degree (Licentiate): in most of Latin America, the degree most commonly awarded to undergraduate students is the licenciatura. Traditionally, it includes several more academic credits than does a B.A. or a B.S.
* Disciplines: architecture, business administration, clinical nutrition, economics, education, international relations, law, political studies, public accounting and auditing, psychology (clinical and industrial).
* M.D./D.D.S.: Students are admitted directly into medical and dental schools as high-school graduates. Then follows a three-year program of basic science studies after which students receive a B.S. degree. It is followed by four years of medical or three of dental studies and one year of internship for medical students. The, graduates receive an M.D.(doctor of medicine) or D.D.S. (doctor of dental surgery) degree. Dental graduates may pursue residency specialization into Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery (four years), Peridodontics (2–3 years), Endodontics (2–3 years), Orthodontics (2–3 years), etc.
* Associate degree: disciplines include art history and personnel administration.
* ''Profesorado'' degree: the ''profesorado'' is a specialized degree for secondary school teachers. In many cases, it is required for employment: disciplines include art history, computer studies, social sciences and language.
Graduate
Master's degree disciplines: business administration (MBA); virtual business administration (online MBA); real estate project management (MAPI); entrepreneurial economics;
international political economy; international relations, finance and taxation (MFIN); management of human resources; social sciences.
Master's degree in the following medical specialties: internal medicine, ophthalmology, pediatrics, radiology.
Doctoral degree
Doctoral degree disciplines: economics, law, social sciences.
Areas of instruction
*
Accounting
*
Architecture
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...
*
Business administration
*
Clinical nutrition Clinical nutrition centers on the prevention, diagnosis, and management of nutritional changes in patients linked to chronic diseases and conditions primarily in health care. Clinical in this sense refers to the management of patients, including no ...
*
Dentistry
*
Economics
Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...
*
Education
Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty ...
*
International relations
International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such a ...
*
Journalism
Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the " news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (pro ...
*
Law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
*
Medicine
Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...
, including
internal medicine;
ophthalmology
Ophthalmology ( ) is a surgical subspecialty within medicine that deals with the diagnosis and treatment of eye disorders.
An ophthalmologist is a physician who undergoes subspecialty training in medical and surgical eye care. Following a medic ...
;
pediatrics; and
radiology
Radiology ( ) is the medical discipline that uses medical imaging to diagnose diseases and guide their treatment, within the bodies of humans and other animals. It began with radiography (which is why its name has a root referring to radiat ...
*
Political studies
Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...
*
Psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...
*
Social sciences
Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of so ...
Departments and projects
The Ludwig von Mises Library has 100,000 visitors annually and is the most extensive collection of works on liberty in Latin America. There is a collection of the private libraries of prominent intellectuals and collectors:
*
José Cecilio del Valle
José Cecilio Díaz del Valle (November 22, 1780 – March 2, 1834) was a philosopher, politician, lawyer, and journalist and one of the most important figures in Central America during the transition from colonial government to independenc ...
, a founding father of Central American independence.
*
Carlos Elmenhorst, collector of Central American books and maps.
*
William Hutt, an English author and economist.
[Egger, John B. "William Harold Hutt (1899–1988): A Biographical Essay from an Austrian Perspective." '' Mises.org''.]
/ref>
* Gordon Tullock, co-founder of the school of Public Choice
* Sir Alan Walters, an economic advisor to Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...
.
At the beginning of the 2000s, the library started offering access to digital resources. It is subscribed to other services in this area including EBSCOHost databases, Oxford Scholarship Online, xRefer Plus and UpToDate, MDConsult and others.
The librar
was chosen
among all the libraries around the World within the 10 libraries to receive the Elsevier donation of 670 titles.
The library sit
received
the ''Arroba de Oro'' award in Guatemala for the best educational website.
The Henry Hazlitt
Henry Stuart Hazlitt (; November 28, 1894 – July 9, 1993) was an American journalist who wrote about business and economics for such publications as ''The Wall Street Journal'', ''The Nation'', ''The American Mercury'', ''Newsweek'', and '' ...
Center co-ordinates the courses of Economic Process (I, II and III) and Social Philosophy (Hayek and the Austrian School) that are offered to all undergraduate students in all schools. It also offers seminars and lectures for professors in order to improve their academic and pedagogic skills.
The Center for the Study of Capitalism was founded in 2009 with the support of the university as a private, secular, coeducational, nonresidential, nonprofit center of study. It organizes socratic dialogue sessions with high school students and young entrepreneurs to study philosophical values as guides to excellence in thinking and action. Since its foundation, more than 1000 participants have joined philosophical discussions.
The Arboretum awakens and cultivates the love for nature and conservation of plants and animals in the campus. The land of the university is a remnant of the Montano Forest of pine and Encino trees that used to cover Guatemala. The beautiful gardens have been carefully designed to integrate native and exotic species, which have been admired by students and visitors. Since the beginning, preservation of the forest was a priority, to the point that the library's architectural design of the buildings was done to keep the trees as intact as possible.
New Media Department – Creation, Implementation & Effective Management of Digital Resources – The New Media Department specializes in streaming audio and video conferences in English and Spanish on topics related to classical liberal thought.
Sampler:
* Milton and Rose Friedman's '' Free to Choose'' series (in Spanish)
* James Buchanan conference for the opening of Latin America's first Public Choice Center (2001)
* Vernon L. Smith honorary doctorate ceremony (2004)
* Interview of Milton and Rose Friedman for the 2002 Mont Pelerin Society
The Mont Pelerin Society (MPS) is an international organization composed of economists, philosophers, historians, intellectuals and business leaders.Michael Novak, 'The Moral Imperative of a Free Economy', in '' The 4% Solution: Unleashing the E ...
General Meeting in London
The New Media digital library includes 1,500 hours of digitized and indexed educational material, and receives over 1000 visitors daily from around the world.
The Museo Popol Vuh Museum offers its visitors a unique journey through Guatemalan history, illustrated by one of the best collections of prehispanic and colonial art in the country. The museum is a scientific, private, nonprofit organization for the conservation, investigation and the popularization of Guatemala's cultural and archeological heritage.
Lienzo de Quauhquechollan is a large Nahua painting on cotton cloth (lienzo) that belongs to the pre-Hispanic tradition of documenting stories of migrations and conquests within a geographic context. Considered the first map of Guatemala, it is one of the few sources from the 16th century that tell of the military campaigns of Jorge de Alvarado in 1527. A digitally-restored copy and an animated recreation of the story, exhibited at the campus, are based on the research done by Dutch archaeologist Florine Asselbergs.
The ITA Scholarship Program (an acronym for Impulso al Talento Academico) stands for "promotion of academic talent." The program grants scholarships for undergraduate degrees to the poorest, most highly qualified and most motivated students. The scholarship covers full tuition and fees, room and board, medical insurance, and a stipend for public transportation, books, and basic personal expenses.
Traditions and landmarks
Following Manuel Ayau, in 1972, the first class of students that entered to the university presented a pair of bronzed shoes to the founding rector, Ayau, as a joke. Since then the shoes are kept at the rector's office; as a way to remember to follow Ayau's steps and those of the founders of the university on the road to freedom.
Honoring the champions of freedom, it has awarded ''honoris causa'' doctorates to scientists, intellectuals, businessmen, artists and others who have contributed to the sciences, the arts, the world of business and the cause of freedom. Four Nobel Prize winners have accepted an honorary degree awarded by the university: Friedrich Hayek
Friedrich August von Hayek ( , ; 8 May 189923 March 1992), often referred to by his initials F. A. Hayek, was an Austrian–British economist, legal theorist and philosopher who is best known for his defense of classical liberalism. Haye ...
; Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman (; July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American economist and statistician who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and the ...
, James M. Buchanan, and Vernon L. Smith.
At the House of Freedom, the library is named after Ludwig von Mises
Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises (; 29 September 1881 – 10 October 1973) was an Austrian School economist, historian, logician, and Sociology, sociologist. Mises wrote and lectured extensively on the societal contributions of classical liberali ...
; there are the Friedrich A. Hayek Auditorium and the Milton Friedman Auditorium. The department in charge of the courses of Social Philosophy and Economic Process is named after Henry Hazlitt
Henry Stuart Hazlitt (; November 28, 1894 – July 9, 1993) was an American journalist who wrote about business and economics for such publications as ''The Wall Street Journal'', ''The Nation'', ''The American Mercury'', ''Newsweek'', and '' ...
. There is a Freedom Plaza and a terrace named after Rose Friedman.
Mises's birthday, September 29, is celebrated by Professor Joseph Keckeissen's students with a Viennese party by the second semester of every year. It includes theatrical presentations, singing and dancing. Keckeissen attended Mises's Seminar in New York City and he began the theatrical tradition in the 1980s with the Guttenberg Society.
Commencement ceremony – On May and November, UFM celebrates commencement ceremonies. During these the graduating students receive their titles and diplomas. On that occasion the Board of Directors award the honoris causa doctorates.
Honor graduates ceremony – The night before the commencement ceremony, at UFM, they celebrate a ceremony and a cocktail party in praise of those students which graduate with honors, and to celebrate excellence (in Spanish). The honors awarded are cum laude, for those who obtained grades between 85 and 90: magna cum laude, for those who obtained grades between 91 and 94; and summa cum laude, for those who accumulated an average between 95 and 100.
Inaugural Lesson – The Inaugural Lesson enjoys a long academic tradition. At Universidad Francisco Marroquín it is a Commencement ceremony and an opportunity to get together the faculty and the students around the philosophy of freedom presented by a local or visiting professor. The first Inaugural Lesson, at UFM, was presented by vicerector emeritus Rigoberto Juárez-Paz, and it was about Plato's Academy.
Landmarks on campus
Marroquín's bust, as the university is named after Bishop Marroquín, because he was the first prelate ordained in America in the colonial times. During his tenure as bishop, Marroquín took care of the rights of indigenous people and helped fund the first university in Central America. Marroquín's bust was donated to the university by Trustee Félix Montes in January 1975. The sculptor is José Nicolás. However, the university is nondenominational.
Hayek's bust, as he was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences
The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, officially the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel ( sv, Sveriges riksbanks pris i ekonomisk vetenskap till Alfred Nobels minne), is an economics award administered ...
in 1974. He visited 1977, when he was awarded an ''honoris causa'' doctorate in social sciences. The House of Freedom, the auditorium of the Academic Building, is named for Hayek. His bust is located at the Ludwig von Mises Library and was donated by Walter S. Morris, of Little Rock
( The "Little Rock")
, government_type = Council-manager
, leader_title = Mayor
, leader_name = Frank Scott Jr.
, leader_party = D
, leader_title2 = Council
, leader_name2 ...
, Arkansas
Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...
, in 1991.
Mises's bust, as he was a luminary of the Austrian School
The Austrian School is a heterodox school of economic thought that advocates strict adherence to methodological individualism, the concept that social phenomena result exclusively from the motivations and actions of individuals. Austrian schoo ...
. He visited Guatemala when he was invited by the Centro de Estudios Económico-Sociales and supported for the foundation of the university. His bust was donated by the class of 1975 by the School of Business.
The Atlas Libertas is a bas relief placed on the main façade of the UFM Business School. A high-relief sculpture of a human figure supporting the universe seen from the back from head to hip. The universe is represented by a series of semicircles (abstract planets and gear mechanisms). The sculpture is made of brass plate with a cyan-colored finish, resembling oxidized copper.
The Central Garden (renamed the Garden of Manuel Ayau) ismodeled after a Greek amphitheater and hosts the commencement ceremonies. The bust of Marroquin is the focus of the garden. In 2011, after the death of founder Ayau, it was renamed to honor him.
The Academic Building's Garden is surrounded by classrooms and the administration offices, seven stories high. Nevertheless, with an air of a Japanese garden
are traditional gardens whose designs are accompanied by Japanese aesthetics and philosophical ideas, avoid artificial ornamentation, and highlight the natural landscape. Plants and worn, aged materials are generally used by Japanese garden desi ...
and pond, it is an oasis of tranquility, removed from the exuberance of the campus itself.
There is a fountain at the Ludwig von Mises Library, near the Central Garden.
Journals
* ''Apuntes de Economía y Política'' (Public Choice Newsletter)
* ''Areté'' (Journal of the Department of Education)
* ''Arquitemas'' (Journal of the School of Architecture)
* ''Eleutheria'' (Philosophy Department)
* ''Laissez-Faire'' (Economics Journal)
* ''Revista de la Facultad de Derecho'' (Law Review)
Recipients of honorary degrees
* John A. Allison IV (Former CEO of BB&T)
* José María Aznar (former prime minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...
of Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
)
* Leszek Balcerowicz
Leszek Henryk Balcerowicz (pronounced ; born 19 January 1947) is a Polish economist, statesman, and Professor at Warsaw School of Economics. He served as Chairman of the National Bank of Poland (2001–2007) and twice as Deputy Prime Minister o ...
( Finance Minister of Poland)
* James M. Buchanan ( Nobel Prize in Economics laureate)
* Alejandro Chafuen
Atlas Network, formerly known as the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, is a non-governmental 501(c)(3) organization based in the United States that provides training, networking and grants for libertarian, free-market, and Conservatism, conser ...
(President of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation)
* Edward H. Crane (Founder and President of the Cato Institute)
* T. Kenneth Cribb, Jr. Former President of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute
The Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) is a nonprofit educational organization that promotes conservative thought on college campuses.
It was founded in 1953 by Frank Chodorov with William F. Buckley Jr. as its first president. It sponsor ...
and Advisor to President Reagan
* Michael Deaver
Michael Keith Deaver (April 11, 1938 – August 18, 2007) was a member of President Ronald Reagan's White House staff serving as White House Deputy Chief of Staff under James Baker III and Donald Regan from January 1981 until May 1985.
Early ...
(Reagan Advisor)
* Michael DeBakey
Michael Ellis DeBakey (September 7, 1908 – July 11, 2008) was a Lebanese-American general and cardiovascular surgeon, scientist and medical educator who became Chairman of the Department of Surgery, President, and Chancellor of Baylor College ...
(Heart surgeon)
* Edwin J. Feulner Jr. (President, The Heritage Foundation)
* Steve Forbes
Malcolm Stevenson Forbes Jr. (; born July 18, 1947) is an American publishing executive and politician who is the editor-in-chief of ''Forbes'', a business magazine. He is the son of longtime ''Forbes'' publisher Malcolm Forbes and the grandso ...
(Publisher)
* Viktor Frankl (Psychologist)
* Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman (; July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American economist and statistician who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and the ...
( Nobel Prize in Economics laureate)
* Friedrich Hayek
Friedrich August von Hayek ( , ; 8 May 189923 March 1992), often referred to by his initials F. A. Hayek, was an Austrian–British economist, legal theorist and philosopher who is best known for his defense of classical liberalism. Haye ...
( Nobel Prize in Economics laureate)
* Jeane Kirkpatrick
Jeane Duane Kirkpatrick (née Jordan; November 19, 1926December 7, 2006) was an American diplomat and political scientist who played a major role in the foreign policy of the Ronald Reagan administration. An ardent anticommunist, she was a lo ...
(Ambassador)
* Václav Klaus (former prime minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...
of the Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...
))
* William Middendorf II (Ambassador)
* Carlos Alberto Montaner (Novelist)
* Barbara Oakley (Educator, Engineer, Writer)
* José Piñera
José Piñera Echenique (born October 6, 1948) is a Chilean economist, one of the famous Chicago Boys, who served as minister of Labor and Social Security, and of Mining, in the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. He is the architect of Ch ...
(Architect of Chile's private pension system)
* Ruth Richardson
Ruth Margaret Richardson (born 13 December 1950) is a New Zealand retired politician of the National Party who served as Minister of Finance from 1990 to 1993. Her 1991 budget, which she dubbed the "Mother of all Budgets", formed the catalyst ...
(Former Minister of Finance, New Zealand)
* Jim Rogers
James Beeland Rogers Jr. (born October 19, 1942) is an American investor and financial commentator based in Singapore. Rogers is the chairman of Beeland Interests, Inc. He was the co-founder of the Quantum Fund and Soros Fund Management. He wa ...
(Investor)
* Robert Sirico (Clergyman, founder of the Acton Institute)
* Vernon L. Smith ( Nobel Prize in Economics laureate)
* John Stossel
John Frank Stossel (born March 6, 1947) is an American libertarian television presenter, author, consumer journalist, and pundit. He is known for his career as a host on ABC News, Fox Business Network, and Reason TV.
Stossel's style combines ...
(Award-winning television news host, writer, and author.)
* Nick Szabo (Blockchain expert, computer scientist, cryptographer, applied-science innovator, historian, socio-economics philosopher, legal scholar)
* Peter Thiel
Peter Andreas Thiel (; born 11 October 1967) is a German-American billionaire entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and political activist. A co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund, he was the first outside investor in F ...
(Entrepreneur founder of PayPal)
* Mario Vargas Llosa ( Nobel Prize in Literature laureate, Novelist, Journalist)
See also
* List of universities in Guatemala
References
External links
Universidad Francisco Marroquín – Francisco Marroquin University
UFM – Biblioteca Ludwig von Mises
Center for the Study of Capitalism – Francisco Marroquin University
UFM – New Media Department
Atlas Libertas – UFM Celebrates 50th Anniversary of Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged"
''in French''
Viennese Party at The Francisco Marroquin University, New Media
UFM Arboretum
Libertate Viam Facere. Objectivism and Ayn Rand
CADEP (Center for the Analysis of Public Choice Decisions)
Henry Hazlitt Center
Official Facebook Page
{{authority control
Educational organizations based in Guatemala
Educational institutions established in 1971
1971 establishments in Guatemala