About Simón Bolívar UWC
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Simón Bolívar United World College of Agriculture is an international vocational university that enrolls approximately 180 secondary school graduates between the ages of 18 and 22, to study a three-year course in agriculture and rural development. Almost all students come from rural areas of developing countries and have a desire to remain based in rural communities. International students comprise 25% of the student body and are primarily from Latin America and the Caribbean, though some come from as far as Africa and Asia.
Simón Bolívar UWC is located in the rural, western plains of Venezuela, 2.5 km from Ciudad Bolivia, Municipality of Pedraza, Barinas State. It is 70 km from Barinas, the capital of Barinas State, and 595 km from Caracas, the nation’s capital.
The college’s hands-on, experiential education method combines production experience with theoretical classes and community based rural development projects. With the endorsement of the Venezuelan Ministry of Education, SB UWC awards degrees in Farm Administration to students who are trained to efficiently manage a competitive and sustainable agricultural unit. Spanish is the language of instruction, and an intensive Spanish course is taught at the beginning of the school year for non-native speakers. The college is a residential campus and farm, with over 300 people living and working together on 750 hectares (1850 acres). The academic year is from mid-September to the end of July.
Mission
Provide to young people, selected for their rural vocation and without distinction of origin, culture or socio-economic condition, an integral, practical and vocational education in Sustainable Rural Development, encouraging the values of understanding international solidarity and commitment to combating rural poverty and environmental degradation
Vision
The Simón Bolívar United World College of Agriculture is a vanguard International Institute, whose educative action based on the Learn By Doing method, significantly contributes to the socioeconomic and environmental improvement of rural areas, and the training of leading agents of sustainable development, promoting in them the values of equity, justice, solidarity and cooperation that inspire and guide the United World Colleges organisation
Who we are...
History of SB UWC
In
1978
during a
visit to Venezuela,
the then
President of
the
(UWC),
HRH The Prince of Wales,
proposed
to the Venezuelan
president the
creation of a UWC
in Venezuela.
A year later,
the Venezuelan
government
and the UWC
organisation signed
an agreement confirming the commitment to make the necessary
arrangements for the opening of such a college. In 1981,
the Simón Bolívar United World Experimental Agriculture College
Foundation (FUNDACEA)
was
created to take the project forward.
As
a first initiative the Foundation
acquired
the Ticoporo Farm, property of the National Institute for Educational
Cooperation (INCE), through a lease agreement that later was transformed
into a donation. The Farm, situated in the plains of Barinas state, in
the Pedraza District, comprised 750
hectares
of land and several buildings, that with some improvements
would be suitable for college
activities.
In 1982 an international commission was set up in Caracas, whose members were Peter Brown (Inspector of Agricultural Schools and Colleges in the United Kingdom), Juan A. Aguirre (International Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture, Inter-American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture IICA – OEA), Josemar Rodriguez (Inter American Development Bank, IDB) and Jack Matthews (at the time the Head of the Lester B. Pearson United World College PCUWC in Canada).
The commission concluded that “The objectives of the Farm Management and Administration at the Simon Bolivar College are realistic and appropriate to the needs of agriculture in Latin America.” The commission also prepared the guidelines with which to produce the documents required by the Venezuelan Ministry of Education in order to open the college. André Daniere (at the time director of Boston College in the USA) carried out an exhaustive economic analysis requested by the IDB, the results of which also contributed significantly to the basic documentation.
Later, several pilot projects were prepared to begin production at the farm, and a series of studies and consultations were carried out in 1985, leading to the completion of the theoretical framework, feasibility study, institutional organisation and curriculum design for the college.
This
intellectual exercise lasted around 4 years, with the participation of
the Agricultural Engineers Luis Marcano Coello, Mauricio Báez Meneses,
Pompeyo Ríos, Luis Miguel Ecarri, Pedro Solórzano and Simón Castillo,
all of whom
were at the time functionaries or directors of the
Farmer
Service Foundation (FUSAGRI),
former Shell Foundation For the Service of the Agriculturalist,
in addition to
Guillermo Alvarez and Alfredo Ascanio from the Simón Bolívar University.
On the 6th of August, 1986, the Venezuelan Ministry of Education approved the opening of the college under the name Experimental University Institute of Technology and Agriculture Simón Bolívar, known in Spanish by the abbreviation IUETA SB, as published in the Republic’s Official Gazette Nş 1187. A month later, the first group of students (all Venezuelan) began classes, and graduated 3 years later honouring Dr Luis Marcano Coello, the driving force behind the project and the first director of the college.
Luis Marcano Coello
Honorary President
In 1982, while working on the basic proposal, the commercial exploitation of the Ticoporo Farm began, and a year later the activities of the Rural Development Programme were also initiated. Both programmes form the core components of practical learning at the college, and in accordance with the proposed educational model, were to be in full operation by the time classes began.
In 1987 the first contingent of international students arrived, and the following year, thanks to the role played by HRH The Prince of Wales, the college officially became the first centre for vocational education within the UWC family of colleges. Some years later, at the petition of the college, the Prince accepted to be named as the founder of the college.