Universidad de Nariño adds Pacific campus and advanced telescope

The Consejo Nacional de Educación Superior approved the creation of the Pacific Section of the Universidad de Nariño, extending public higher‑education to ten coastal municipalities in the department. The regional government will allocate about 1 000 million pesos annually and the national budget will provide additional resources to operate sites in Tumaco, Barbacoas and El Charco, with the first programmes—such as a licentiate in Languages—starting in August.

Separately, a $1.45 million, one‑meter‑aperture robotic telescope built by U.S. firm PlaneWave Instruments was flown to Nariño. Installed at the future Centro de Ciencias of the Universidad de Nariño, the instrument will enable high‑precision studies of hazardous asteroids, exoplanets and other celestial bodies, and will support collaborations with NASA and U.S. planetary‑defense agencies.