
UTH Florida University grows in the United States market
UTH Florida University grows in the United States market
The institution of Honduran origin celebrates six years of operations in the United States and ratifies the commitment to be the international university for the Hispanic world.
By José A. Barrera – Strategy & Business Magazine
UTH University Florida wins places as a higher education alternative for Hispanics in the United States. The entity was founded by the leaders of the Technological University of Honduras (UTH) six years ago, but it has an independent operation in the state of Florida, which allows it to target an educational market with a global reach.
Roger Enrique Valladares Baker, executive vice president of UTH and president of the university in Florida, explained that the model is taking hold and allows students -of various nationalities- to achieve a university degree in the US.
“The idea of opening UTH Florida University was to be able to bring higher education to our Hispanics, especially to immigrants, to illegal immigrants, to those who do not have access to education due to high costs or for fear of having an immigration problem,” Valladares said. .
The entity currently serves students of 31 nationalities who receive classes virtually, most of whom reside in the United States. Valladares adds that they currently have students in Japan, the case of a Russian who chose UTH Florida University to improve his Spanish and that of a student who receives her classes while working on a cruise ship where she did not have access to training while traveling the world. , among other testimonials that have seen the potential in the format offered by the entity.
Can read: UTH Florida: Pensamiento crítico para la toma de decisiones
Initially, he said, most of the students were Honduran nationals, but he noted that this has changed. “57% of all our students live in the United States. At first it was the other way around. Most lived in Honduras and wanted an American degree and studied with us to get it. Fortunately for us, that has already changed and now the majority live in the United States and in other parts of the world, ”she assessed.
HIGH DEMANDS
Valladares explained that opening an educational entity in the United States is not an easy task, since a series of requirements must be met to obtain the endorsement to operate as a university, which is extended by the Independent Education Commission of the Department of Education of the State of Florida.
“The first challenge we had was to comply with all the legal requirements to be able to grant titles, certificates and apostilles for higher education. Then obviously the financial part. It was quite a large investment to later be able to have all the technological platforms to offer virtual education in Spanish,” he said.
The president of the entity affirms that UTH is making history since it is normal for foreign universities to establish themselves in markets like the Honduran one, but few from their country decide to bet on entering markets as rigorous as the United States.
He acknowledges that the paperwork required to open a university is complicated, to the extent that if compared to other activities -such as banking- it could be even more diligent. “We realized that it is easier to open a bank than a university. Because? Because you are dealing with the student’s education, which makes you meet a series of requirements so that they can grant you a license, a license that we-year after year-renew,” he explained.
Valladares said that it took them two and a half years to obtain all the legal status to obtain university endorsement and that they initially sought to buy one (university) to start with the face-to-face format, but he acknowledged that after several analyzes and after listening to the executive director of the entity, Ronald Lacayo, decided to move forward via virtuality, a path that currently allows them to have more than 700 active students. While, in its six years of history, they have already served more than 2,400 students.

ACADEMIC OFFER
Valladares assures that they apply the same work mystique as UTH in Honduras and that their educational offer is in the same vein. “Since we try to maintain what we are good at, and what we are good at is what we were born in Honduras with, we have careers related to business,” he anticipated. The career portfolio includes Business Administration, Human Resources, Marketing and they are also venturing into the field of master’s degrees.
“We have master’s degrees in Business and Finance, in International Business, Human Resources as well, and, recently, we took a degree focused on technology that is a master’s degree in Cybersecurity,” explained Valladares. Regarding the latter, he said that as an academic institution they recognize that there is a great need to be able to train in cybersecurity issues. “That is the focus right now and we believe that we are going to keep these courses since we are in an accreditation process, which does not allow us to add more courses until we are fully accredited. But accreditation is different from being legalized. This is a plus that we are going to get ”, he stressed in an interview with Strategy & Business.
It currently has alliances with regional companies such as Grupo Salinas, with which it seeks to sign corporate agreements to offer scholarships to employees and family members to study at UTH Florida University.
Meet Roger D. Valladares: Trabajo y sacrificio para construir sueños
A LEGACY THAT TRANSCENDS
Valladares is part of the second generation at the helm of UTH, a job that his father, businessman Roger Danilo Valladares Varela, began more than three decades ago.
“My father’s perseverance made us become the largest and most important university in Honduras. So, every day I have lessons from him, but perhaps – if I can choose one – it is the constant optimism ”, he pointed out.
For Valladares, another of the values he inherits is the need to dream and plan big things. “More important than dreaming is waking up and working for those dreams, because they are not going to fall from the sky. It is the perseverance that my father has instilled in me and we are trying to instill it here. UTH Honduras also spent five years, after its foundation, in which every year it lost money and could not get ahead, but my father’s perseverance made us now the most important and largest university in the country, ”he said.
Valladares also stressed that the legacy that he protects is important because it is his father’s, but that in the case of UTH Florida it is a project that he started together with him, but that allows him to trace his own history.
“The idea is that this university really is the number one option for Hispanics in the world, to study with all the quality standards and each time strengthening the academic part, with better professors, with better technologies. But that we be the number one option for when a Hispanic wants to pursue his university studies ”, he concluded.
Source: UTH Florida University crece en el mercado de Estados Unidos (estrategiaynegocios.net)