Michael Novak
Author, philosopher and theologian
UFM honorary doctorate in social sciences
Mario Vargas Llosa
Nobel laureate in literature
UFM honorary doctorate in literature
Milton Friedman
Nobel laureate in economics
UFM honorary doctorate in social sciences
The mission of Universidad Francisco Marroquín is to teach and disseminate the ethical, legal, and economic principles of a society of free and responsible persons.
Let’s accelerate freedom!
What if applying the principles of markets and self-organization could significantly raise the success rate of your projects?
Every year, a small group of highly-leveraged policy reformers, entrepreneurs, and disruptors come together in Antigua, Guatemala. Here, they work for two intense days on projects from around the world that hold the promise of expanding human well-being through liberty, using an innovative and effective collaborative format based on self-organization.
Let’s demystify the business cycle!
Finally, actionable research from Austrian economists that helps investors and academics pinpoint the vulnerabilities in our financial system.
UFM Market Trends is the 21st century equivalent of Friedrich Hayek’s business cycle monitor applied to modern markets. The quarterly online newsletter uses an innovative combination of indicators to analyze the world’s most important economies and sectors.
It’s a MOOC! (A WHAT?)
“Massive Open Online Course”
In his novel Don Quijote, Cervantes makes the case for stable money, equality before the law, marketplace ethics, racial diversity, religious freedom, and respect for women. What a great opportunity to use imaginative literature to teach the relationship between liberty, prosperity, and human dignity. With UFM’s pioneering online course, large audiences are encountering ideas they might otherwise meet with indifference or reject (12,000 enrolled to date!).
Hacking the film industry!
How can a book like Human Action compete against the adventures of Che on his motorcycle? Which one touches the hearts of more people?
For liberty to take hold, the public must understand that free enterprise generates wealth, opportunity, and progress. In January 2016, UFM opened the first university-based film school in Latin America to create a pipeline of film entrepreneurs who value the principles that sustain a free society.
Taking on the ivory tower of financial regulation!
The goal is ambitious: To shift financial regulation to more free-market approach.
Around the world, new waves of financial regulation are on the way. Financial markets are the bedrock of a free and prosperous society. Anyone who defends liberty should be worried.
FRC is a catalyst and publishing platform for high-level and innovative research on financial economics. First priority? Focus on analyzing new regulations published at the consultation level to maximize impact on policy decisions BEFORE they happen.
Walk
that
talk!
Can we build individual freedom and responsibility into the learning process itself?
MPC is an intensive, three-year liberal arts program built on learning contracts between students and mentors. The innovative approach uses the principles of individual choice, property rights, and responsibility to create a classical liberal ethos around the learning process itself. Students graduate with a deep appreciation—on a personal level—for the concept of free to choose.
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At UFM, as in most of Guatemala, the academic year begins in January and finishes in November. Undergraduate programs operate on a semester system; graduate programs on either a quarter or a semester system. Undergraduate programs have an eight-week semester break in June and July. Commencements are in May and November.
Although the language of instruction in most programs is Spanish, visiting professors often give classes and lectures in English. English is also the language of instruction at UFM’s Michael Polanyi College. In all programs, students are expected to have a working knowledge of English. At the undergraduate level, an acceptable TOEFL score is a degree requirement.
Fifty percent of Guatemalans live in poverty, the majority in urban slums or remote rural areas. Most talented minds go to waste because poor families need their kids to start working, often long before they hit high school.
UFM founded the ITA scholarship program in 1996 to identify the most highly qualified and motivated students among Guatemala’s poorest and make it possible for them to earn a life-changing UFM degree. In Spanish, ITA stands for Promoting Academic Talent.
For the second year in a row, it was mostly students who filled to overflow the 600-seat auditorium, spellbound as they listened all morning to the stories of six human rights champions. In the afternoon, they had the chance to participate in informal conversations with the speakers.
The impact was huge. Because the speakers were all young, students could project what they were hearing more easily onto their own lives. The fact that several of the speakers are in danger of assassination drove home the reality that the fight for human rights is now and it’s everywhere. Perhaps, most importantly, they realized the difference that the voice of a single individual can make. Many commented on feeling for the first time a commitment to be a voice.
Abdalaziz Alhamza
Syrian citizen-turned-journalist who cofounded the activist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, which exposes—from behind the lines—the tactics of ISIS in Syria.
Anastasia Lin
Chinese actress who uses her platforms in film and as a beauty pageant queen to expose the Chinese government’s practice of harvesting prisoners’ organs to meet on-demand orders for transplants.
Yulia Marushevska
Protagonist of the 2014 viral video that explained the Ukrainian EuroMaidan protests to the world. This led to her appointment as head of customs for the Black Sea ports and a battle against corruption that pitted her against the interests of high-level officials. As clashes escalated, she left the post to become an anti-corruption activist.
Rosa María Payá
As president of the Latin American Network of Youth for Democracy and member of Cuba Decide, she follows in the footsteps of her late father, Oswaldo Payá, one of the most effective and high-profile dissidents living in Cuba, who died under suspicious circumstances.
Jamila Raqib
From an exiled Afghan family, the executive director of the Albert Einstein Institution produced a book with Gene Sharp that is used around the world as a practical guide for nonviolent resistance: Self-Liberation: A Guide to Strategic Planning for Action to End a Dictatorship or Other Oppression.
Omar Sharif Jr.
In 2013, the Egyptian actor announced that he was both gay and half Jewish. Since then—his passport revoked—he works in exile as a LGBT rights activist and focuses on the use of culture and media to promote free and open societies in the Middle East.
The courage of these activists was brought home when Thor Halvorssen, founder of the Human Rights Foundation, announced that ten secret police had just forced their way into Yulia’s family’s home in Ukraine looking for her.
Jamila Raqib had a big surprise for the audience. It turns out that the massive South Korean demonstrations (1.5 million) that ended with the impeachment and ouster of the president were inspired by the 2015 student-led demonstrations in Guatemala that resulted in the resignation (and jailing for corruption) of the president and vice president.
“It’s not at surprising to see UFM hold an event like this. UFM understands that tolerance and diversity of opinions are key components of freedom and—in the deepest sense—of a moral society.”
Thor Halvorssen
President and CEO
Human Rights Foundation
In the United States
For more information or to make a donation, please contact
Friends of UFM
Lisa Hazlett Roberts, executive director
(+1) 904-375-2944
Mailing Address
P.O. Box 71
Stuart, Florida 34995
Friends of UFM is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
In Guatemala
For more information or to make a donation, please contact
Universidad Francisco Marroquín
Lissa Hanckel, trustee
(+1) 305-394-6672 (VOIP line)
