Procedures: how a student defends themselves in Colombia

This guide explains, with sources, what stages the formal procedure has when a university accuses you of plagiarism or academic fraud on the strength of a detector, and where Descargo fits in each. It covers Spain and Colombia. Mexico is in procedures-mx.md, Argentina in procedures-ar.md, Chile in procedures-cl.md and Peru in procedures-pe.md; other countries will get their own guides, each with its sources.

This is not legal advice. It is public information put in order. Every fact carries its source and the date a person checked it by reading the official text. What could not be checked is marked to verify. Every university also has its own rules, which take precedence over the general ones: read yours in full before replying to anything.

What both countries share

A detector's percentage is an indication, not a sanction. To sanction you, the university has to open a procedure and let you defend yourself within it. What follows is what that right of defence consists of in each country.

Colombia

What applies (checked 2026-11-08)

The Ley 30 of 1992 does not set the student disciplinary procedure: it requires every higher education institution to have student regulations (reglamento estudiantil) covering, among other things, the «régimen disciplinario» (disciplinary regime, art. 109). Within their autonomy, universities may «admitir a sus alumnos y adoptar sus correspondientes regímenes» (admit their students and adopt the corresponding regimes, art. 28), and university institutions and technological schools may «adoptar el régimen de alumnos y docentes» (adopt the regime for students and teachers, art. 29, f). So the procedure comes from your institution's regulations. That autonomy has a limit set by the Constitutional Court:

"in order to protect the right to education and to prevent university autonomy from turning into arbitrariness, imposing a disciplinary sanction must be preceded by procedural stages that guarantee the minimum elements of due process"

(Ruling T-087 of 2020, para. 54.)

The seven minimums of due process

The Court has repeated them thus (T-087/20, para. 55); the university must "at least" guarantee:

1. Formal notice of the opening of the proceeding to the person accused.

2. The charges, oral or written, with the conduct, the offences and the regulation provisions that establish them, and their provisional classification.

3. Transfer of each and every piece of evidence that supports the charges.

4. A period to put forward your defence (descargos), orally or in writing, to contest the evidence against you and to provide your own.

5. A final decision, in a reasoned and consistent act.

6. A sanction proportionate to the facts.

7. The possibility of contesting through the appropriate remedies each decision.

These minimums "do not apply in the same terms nor with the same rigour" as in a court case (T-087/20, para. 54).

The Court adds that offences must be established beforehand and that sanctions may not be disproportionate (T-087/20, para. 56), and that universities may regulate conduct such as "plagiarism or fraud" (T-290/23, para. 89, quoting the Court's own case law). If your university's regulation does not define the offence you are accused of, that is a point for your statement of defence.

If the university does not respect those minimums

The tutela action (art. 86 of the Constitution and Decreto 2591 of 1991) is available in university disciplinary proceedings, but requires standing, immediacy and subsidiarity, that is, first exhausting the university's own remedies (T-290 of 2023, para. 65 and 66). That ruling decides two specific cases; only the doctrine is cited here, not the people.

Is there a University Ombudsperson?

Not a single office, as in Spain: some universities have one, under different names. Two examples, so you know what to look for in your regulation or on your university's site:

• The Ombudsperson (Ombudsperson) of the Universidad de los Andes, appointed since 2013. It takes queries from students, staff and faculty, guides people on handling academic, administrative or disciplinary situations, and mediates in conflicts; it says it "neither accuses nor defends anyone" (Uniandes).

• The Student Ombudsperson's Office (Defensoría del Estudiante) of the Universidad Popular del Cesar, attached to its Institutional Welfare Office (Unicesar, 19-05-2021).

If your university has one, it can guide you and mediate, but it does not replace the defence statement or the remedies in the regulation: follow the regular channel.

To verify

• The names and deadlines in each university's regulation ("descargos", "disciplinary committee", "faculty council"…): they come from its regulation, not from a general rule, and you need to read yours.

• Whether any national rule requires Colombian universities to have an office equivalent to the Spanish University Ombudsperson (none has been found).

Where Descargo fits

How this was checked

The texts of Ley 3/2022, Real Decreto 1791/2010, Ley 39/2015 and the two rulings were downloaded from the official sources (the BOE and the Constitutional Court's reporter) on 2026-11-08, and the Ley 30 of 1992 on 2026-11-10: the current text from the Colombian Senate's General Secretariat and the original from the Ministry of National Education. The quotations were searched for in the text. Laws change: check this document's date and the current text in the BOE or the reporter before relying on it.

Source text of this guide on GitHub