Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas

About Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas

Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas is an autonomous public university associated with Bogotá’s district government. Its statutes give it legal personality and academic, administrative, financial, and budgetary autonomy. This is an independent university rather than a municipal department, research center, or constituent faculty. The institution traces its origins to the creation of Bogotá’s municipal college in 1948 and identifies 1950 as the year it was constituted as a university. Its original development emphasized access to technical and higher education for sectors of the city that had limited opportunities. Over time, its academic scope expanded from early technical areas into engineering, teacher education, environmental studies, arts, sciences, technology, and postgraduate research. The university’s structure is closely tied to Bogotá. Its official campus directory describes 23 sites dispersed across the city, including facilities used by different faculties and administrative units. Students should therefore assess the actual teaching site of their chosen program instead of treating the university as a single-campus institution. The official history describes it as the capital’s public university and notes that it educates students from metropolitan Bogotá as well as other Colombian regions. Active 2026 undergraduate and postgraduate calendars, admissions processes, student services, and institutional notices demonstrate continuing operations. No evidence was found of closure, merger, loss of university status, or a general suspension of admissions as of August 2026.

For entry to the second academic intake of 2026, undergraduate applicants were required to pre-register, generate and pay the registration receipt, complete the online application, and follow the official program-specific instructions. The published 2026 process accepted payments from April 14 through May 25 and online registrations from April 15 through May 26. Those dates applied to that particular intake and should not be reused for a later cycle. Saber 11 results are central to undergraduate selection. The university’s 2026 guidance states that applicants needed results available by the closing date and generally required a test taken within the previous five years—2021 onward for the second 2026 intake. Minimum scores vary by program and are displayed in the undergraduate offering. Applicants should not rely on a university-wide cutoff. Arts programs and some technological, transfer, or professionalization pathways can involve different assessments or documentation. Admitted undergraduates must complete the separate enrollment process and submit the requested identity, academic, and socioeconomic evidence. The university uses socioeconomic documentation when calculating undergraduate tuition, so accurate supporting records matter. Postgraduate admission is decentralized. Each specialization, master’s, or doctoral program may set its own academic prerequisites, documents, interview or selection stages, cohort schedule, and fees. International applicants should obtain program-specific advice on foreign qualifications and immigration requirements before paying an application charge.

The academic portfolio covers several distinct traditions: engineering and technology; environmental and natural-resource fields; sciences and education; and artistic study through the ASAB faculty. Official admissions information organizes undergraduate choices by faculty and program, while the university’s postgraduate directory lists specializations, master’s programs, and doctorates. Examples visible in the official postgraduate offering include doctoral study in artistic studies and postgraduate work connected to education, engineering, environmental subjects, and the social sciences. Program design and admissions conditions are not uniform. Undergraduate applicants must consult the current page for the exact program because minimum Saber 11 scores, special tests, available places, registration conditions, and teaching locations can differ. Arts programs may use specific assessments, and some technological or professional pathways have their own eligibility rules. Postgraduate programs publish separate calls, schedules, tuition formulas, and document requirements; some do not admit a new cohort every semester. Spanish is the practical default for study and administration. One postgraduate program concerns teaching English, but that does not establish English as the university-wide instructional language. International students should confirm language expectations, recognition of prior credentials, immigration documentation, and any program-specific assessment directly with the relevant admissions office. The official postgraduate directory confirms awards explicitly named as maestría and doctorado, supporting master’s and PhD-level classification. Undergraduate offerings are described through Colombian professional and technological credentials. Because those award names do not uniformly state “bachelor,” this profile does not independently verify every undergraduate credential as an exact bachelor-level award.

Key Highlights

• Autonomous public university of Bogotá with separate legal personality
• Constituted as a university in 1950
• Distributed urban campus comprising 23 sites across Bogotá
• Active undergraduate and postgraduate operations documented for 2026

Student Life & Environment

Student life is distributed across faculty sites rather than concentrated in one residential campus. The university’s welfare office serves the broader university community through health, human-development, socioeconomic, sports, artistic, cultural, human-rights, and gender-based-violence support areas. Its published services include medicine, nursing, dentistry, psychology, physiotherapy, social work, sports, and culture, although access procedures and schedules should be checked for the student’s assigned site. Socioeconomic support is an important part of the welfare structure. The food-support program is aimed at reducing vulnerability among undergraduate students and uses semester-based calls with a socioeconomic review. In 2026-I, the office published separate calls relating to food vouchers and lunches. Eligibility should not be assumed: students must follow the relevant call, provide the requested evidence, and wait for selection. Cultural and sporting activities provide routes into university life beyond classes, but availability can differ between locations. The university also offered a 2026 short-stay academic-mobility call providing potential economic and logistical support to eligible active undergraduates formally invited to represent the institution at national or international events. The official materials reviewed do not establish a university residence-hall system. Students moving to Bogotá should therefore plan housing independently and verify commuting time to the particular site where their program is taught.

Location & Surroundings

The university is embedded throughout Bogotá, Colombia’s capital, rather than enclosed within a single campus. Its official directory reports 23 sites, including Calle 40, Aduanilla de Paiba, Vivero, Macarena, Bosa, ASAB, and the Technological Faculty site. Different faculties and services occupy different locations, and some university properties are owned while others are used through loan or lease arrangements. This structure gives students access to different parts of Bogotá and connects academic activity directly with the city-region. It also makes program-level planning essential. Applicants should identify where compulsory classes, laboratories, studios, libraries, and welfare services are located before choosing accommodation. A central administrative address should not be assumed to be the teaching location. Prospective students arriving from outside Bogotá should budget for private accommodation and urban transportation. The reviewed official pages do not provide a general residence-hall offer or a single university-wide housing price. Commute requirements may vary significantly by faculty, semester schedule, and the services a student uses, so housing decisions are best made after the program confirms its principal site.

Costs & Career Outcomes

The database record supplies no verified university-wide tuition figure, and the university does not present one flat price applicable to every student. For admitted undergraduates in the 2026-3 process, the official enrollment page states that tuition is calculated from the socioeconomic information submitted by the applicant under the university’s governing rules. Admitted students may also see pecuniary items such as system services, an identity card, or student insurance on the payment receipt. Applicants should use their own issued invoice rather than estimate costs from another student’s payment. Postgraduate pricing is program-specific. Official program pages may express tuition as a multiple of Colombia’s statutory monthly minimum wage and list separate discounts or exemptions. A fee published for one doctorate or master’s program should not be generalized to other postgraduate study. Students should also budget for application charges, academic documents, graduation rights, transportation between sites, private housing, food, and personal expenses. The university publishes annual pecuniary charges, but the relevant amount depends on the transaction. Career support is available through the alumni office. Its published service portfolio includes employment opportunities, continuing education, welfare activities, and professional accompaniment. The university also conducts employability surveys to study graduates’ educational and work trajectories. No sufficiently current, institution-wide salary or employment-rate outcome was found, so prospective students should ask individual programs about internships, professional practice, employer connections, and recent graduate destinations.