ACE’s Center for Internationalization and Global Engagement (CIGE) teamed up with the Centro de Desarrollo Universia
(Universia) (a division of Banco Santander) to deliver a seminar on
“Partnering with U.S. Higher Education” Oct. 5-7 in Miami for
institutional leaders from Latin America, the Caribbean and Spain.
CIGE’s Heather H. Ward shares highlights from the meeting, which was
conducted in Spanish.
Access, affordability, quality, student learning. Higher education
worldwide faces these and other challenges, which can best be addressed
through cooperation and collaboration, according to Fernando León García, rector of CETYS Universidad (CETYS) (Mexico) and the keynote speaker during the “Partnering with U.S. Higher Education” seminar organized by CIGE and Universia in Miami.
Since taking the reins at CETYS in 2010, León has forged ties with
dozens of institutions in the Americas, Asia and Europe. As a result of
León’s relentless focus on internationalization—including participation
in the seventh cohort of ACE’s Internationalization Laboratory—48
percent of CETYS’s 2016 graduates had an international experience while
earning their degrees. While many gained that experience through
international study, León emphasized the limitations of student mobility
due to cost, academic program requirements and other factors.
Indeed, international experience and student learning figured
foremost among reasons seminar participants are seeking deeper relations
with U.S. higher education. While student exchange is the most common
form of cooperation, these institutional leaders representing 10
countries in Latin America, the Caribbean and Spain hope to develop more
faculty exchange, collaborative research, joint degree programs,
experiential learning opportunities and virtual exchange with their U.S.
counterparts. They came to Miami to get guidance from ACE and other
experts on how to create and sustain different types of partnerships and
align them with their institutional strategies and missions.
This seminar is one of many ways that we are bringing ACE programs
and research to international audiences, and at the same time learning
about innovations worldwide that can enhance U.S. higher education. We
chose the topic of partnerships with U.S. higher education for this
seminar based on responses from participants of the previous
ACE-Universia program for Ibero-American institutions, and because we
hope it results in deeper ties to Latin America, the Caribbean and Spain
for our ACE members.
When considering a partnership strategy, said Susan Carvalho, associate provost and dean of the graduate school at the University of Alabama
and ACE internationalization advisor, the key is to know yourself. Each
word of a mission statement has been carefully chosen to describe an
institution’s core identity. From there, decisions about partner
locations, academic focus and the type of joint activity can follow.
Carvalho cautioned participants to invest in meaningful, coordinated and
sustained partnership programs rather than projects, which can drain
time and resources without meeting strategic objectives.
R. McKenna Brown, senior international officer at Virginia Commonwealth University and Gabriela Rivera Magallanes, associate dean for International Affairs, International Projects and Initiatives at CETYS,
guided participants through the initial steps of determining one’s own
capacity and goals, then identifying partners with similar academic
focus and identity. Analogous to dating and marriage, each partner
should be clear about expectations (including monogamy), degree of
commitment, reciprocity and expected duration of the relationship.
Participants noted the size and complexity of U.S. higher education can
make it difficult to find the ideal partner, and that they often know
about U.S. institutions only by international reputation and ranking. By
the same token, few U.S. institutions are familiar with the education
systems of Latin America, the Caribbean and Spain.
Berklee College of Music’s senior advisor for global initiatives, Guillermo Cisneros,
discussed the unique approach that Berklee took in building global
partnerships. Starting with the college’s core identity as a school of
contemporary music, Berklee first worked with music academies in various
regions to build capacity and transfer Berklee’s signature methodology.
Over time, 19 of those institutions in 18 countries—including
Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador—have become members of the
Berklee International Network, serving as brand ambassadors, local
liaisons, recruiters, and partners for teaching and learning.
During a session that I led on the size, complexity and diversity of
the U.S. higher education system, many participants were surprised to
learn that most U.S. students today are considered non-traditional and
that some 83 percent rely on financial aid. No wonder, one participant
noted, “students from our U.S. partner institution don’t come to my
university to study.”
Cisneros pointed out further areas in which U.S. higher education
differs from many other countries: Experiential learning (i.e.,
internships, service learning) is highly valued, and for the most part,
U.S. institutions are not highly internationalized—despite the
strong global reputation of the U.S. system and many prominent
institutions. For example, international students account for under 5
percent of enrollment, and under 10 percent of U.S. students study
abroad. Many U.S. colleges and universities with limited international
exposure would welcome new partnerships with Ibero-American institutions
as a way of expanding global learning opportunities for their students.
One area where there is currently significant partnership activity is the U.S.-Mexico border, according to Jermain Griffin, ACE research associate, who presented initial findings of the Observatory on U.S.-Mexico Higher Education Collaboration (2 MB PDF), a CIGE research initiative supported by Banco Santander-Universia.
Griffin found more than a third of active U.S.-Mexico student exchange
programs were between institutions in the border region. Misperceptions
among U.S. students and families about security in Mexico and cost,
however, stand in the way of more extensive cross-border collaboration. A
final report will be released later this fall.
As the group in Miami tracked the trajectory of Hurricane Matthew,
CETYS’s Fernando León García offered this forecast for the future of
U.S.-Ibero-American higher education ties:
Robust regional or standardized national accreditation will
facilitate greater mobility of students, academic credit and degrees
across borders.
International cooperation will shift from bilateralism to
multilateralism, involving consortia and networks of partner
institutions that can together tackle shared challenges.
Collaboration will increasingly occur online through virtual exchange methods such as Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL), developed by the State University of New York and adopted by institutions worldwide.
In November, Susan Carvalho and I will meet up with several who participated in the seminar at the Latin American and Caribbean Conference for Internationalization of Higher Education,
or LACHEC, in Bogotá. We’ll keep you posted as CIGE continues expanding
its work with Latin American higher education, particularly as we
discover opportunities for deeper and mutually beneficial collaboration
with ACE member institutions.
