The Universidad Autónoma de Bucaramanga is a private institution that offers duly recognized programs in Higher Education. It is a non-profit establishment and its purpose of exalting the human being is translated into liberal, democratic principles that guide its actions, geared toward the improvement of the region and the country.

Over the years, the UNAB has provided the region and the country with the best of its educational management. The dynamics of its growth, now offering 20 undergraduate programs, 34 graduate programs, 4 technician degree programs, 2 technological degree programs and over 80 diploma courses and seminars in different areas of knowledge, have made it a top institution of higher education with excellent academic quality preparing Colombian leadership.

The UNAB'S history started out with administrative and legal sciences, which carried on until 1974 with its first three undergraduate programs: Business Administration - whose first graduating class graduated that same year-, Law and Public Accounting.

By the end of the seventies and in the early eighties, with the advances made in the fields of humanities and education, the Children's Education program was born, whose purpose was to strengthen pedagogical awareness. This new humanistic formula was complemented with the creation of the Social Communication programs, with majors in Journalism and Organizational Communication.

In the nineties, the information science boom led to the expansion of academic activities with the Systems Engineering Program. After that, the body of knowledge in engineering took its first steps in solving problems in the service sector, leading the University to design and offer two innovative programs: Market Engineering and Financial Engineering. At the same time, the program in Tourism and Hotel Administration was created.

After launching these fields of knowledge, Psychology and Music opened in 1994. That same decade, the School of Medicine strengthened the UNAB'S social leadership and consolidated its role in community improvement.

By the end of the decade, the world and national debate on energy resources and their impact on the economy led the University to begin creating the program in Power Engineering. This is how the UNAB confirmed its social commitment to the country and its concerns regarding environmental sustainability. In a similar context, the University took on the challenge of creating the Mechatronic Engineering program, breaking new ground in Colombia, to play its part in improving the competitiveness of the country's productive sector.

Besides developing conventional undergraduate programs in the nineties, the University began designing a model for virtual education, with the support of specialists in Education, Communications and Information Technology. That is where Virtual UNAB came from, a commitment to educational development backed by information technologies and communications.

During the first few years of the 21st Century, the Virtual UNAB'S Educational System was strengthened with the creation of Virtual programs in Public Accounting, Business Administration and Literature. During the same period, the program in Audiovisual Art Production was launched.

In late March 2003, the academic division Technological UNAB was created, which centralizes the training and consultancy projects in information technologies and communications being developed, where the Intelligent Project, courses geared toward certification, Centro Prometric and non-degree programs are among the most noteworthy.

In 2005, the academic unit Berusfsakademie, Dual Higher Education, was consolidated enabling students to alternate their scientific training in the classroom with the work environment in different organizations or companies.

Program Creation Dates
1952	Primary School Section of the Caldas Institute
1960	Secondary School Section of the Caldas Institute
1969	Administración de Empresas
1972	Law
1974	Public Accounting
1976	Bachelor of Arts in Preschool Education
1981	Social Outreach
1988	Bachelor of Arts in Basic Education, Majoring in Spanish
1988	Bachelor of Arts in Basic Education, Majoring in Information Technology
1991	Systems Engineering
1991	Children's Education
1993	Market Engineering
1993	Financial Engineering
1993	Psychology
1994	Music
1996	Medicine
1997	Tourism and Hotel Administration
1998	Mechatronic Engineering
1999	School of Power Engineering
2002	Audiovisual Art Production
2002	Virtual Public Accounting
2005	Virtual Business Administration
2006	Virtual Literature