The Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia is a University with branches in 19 cities of the country. With over 45 thousand students, its presence and action make it an inclusive, decentralized and leader institution.

The Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia is an Institution of Higher Education, of social property, that for its origin and organization belongs to the sector of social economy.  

Its fundamental purposes are: The EDUCATION of professionals with political criteria, creative and supportive, that contribute to the harmonious development of society, THE RESEARCH, linked to teaching and learning, as a contribution of scientific and social problems, THE EXTENSION AND SOCIAL PROJECTION oriented to public service and the effective bound to the productive sector, and the INTERNATIONALIZATION oriented to the interaction of theorist and practical knowledge among world academic communities, teachers and researchers mobility, students and curriculum and cooperation among cultures.  

It provides learning in the fields of sciences, techniques, technologies and humanities in undergraduate, postgraduate and non formal education and for the labor, in active and flexible environments of learning. 

As a university community it values the freedom, the solidarity, the equity and the respect for diversity as a foundation of the construction of a new society. 

It is a University of national character, decentralized and open to the world. 

For the year 2020, the Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia will be an alternative University, organized as a network, promoter of social inclusion, recognized in a national and international level for the innovation of its educational services, the education of professionals and competent citizens, the high quality of its academic programs and a university system of research integrated to worldwide networks of knowledge.  

Its university community will be integrated by teams that will be created permanently and will participate in the continuous institutional improvement, the protection of the environment, the eradication of poverty, the access to all to education and the sustainable development through the social and solidary economy.  
   

The Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia not only recognizes but incorporates the education as a public service. It reaffirms and practices the freedom of teaching, learning and research and establishes the strengthening of democracy as a final purpose.

The Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia is considered and alternative university because of the practice of the following principles: 

In first place, it is a university that belongs to the Social Economy sector. It means a social property and sense of its programs and projects oriented to a population that, by other means, has no access to superior education. Its purpose is to develop the potential of the people who benefit from the services and of the social sectors that have needs to be met by them

Secondly, among its goals, the university has the education of professionals with political criteria, convinced that politics is the strategy to canalize participation. It is also the resource to express needs and expectations of society, the possibility to be part of power, the mechanism to make collective decisions and a path to think and restructure society.

It is a university open and flexible. It is always willing to incorporate change and adapt to it in a reflexive and proactive way. The Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia is far from joining mechanically to trends or ways invented or imposed by others. On the contrary, it creates spaces for individual and collective expressions that nourish solidarity within the institution.   

The university looks ahead. This means that our services look for anticipating to the requirements of society through projective strategies.

The university is, at the same time, national and regional, this implies the conciliation of differences among the conceptions of what should be done in the country, what should be consider a priority and what should be adopted as a social commitment 

The Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia is the scenario for the local, regional and national interaction, with international trends.

Finally, the university believes and practices the University Social Responsibility, through committing institutionally with the caring and promotion of the natural and social environments that are healthy and fair. We are also committed to professional and academic exercises that are ethical and responsible with other present and future beings. We are convinced that a better and more inclusive world is built upon everyone´s participation.