New Approaches to Cooperation with
Latin America
By Charlotte West
A publication of NAFSA: Association of International Educators, 2012
This publication is available on the NAFSA website at www.nafsa.org/epubs
New Approaches to Cooperation with Latin America
About the Author
Charlotte West, a former Fulbright fellow, is a frequent contributor to NAFSA’s award-winning International
Educator magazine. She lives in Seattle, Washington.
About NAFSA
NAFSA is an association of individuals worldwide advancing international education and exchange
and global workforce development. NAFSA serves international educators and their institutions and
organizations by establishing principles of good practice, providing training and professional development
opportunities, providing networking opportunities, and advocating for international education.
Notice of Liability
The information in these documents is distributed on an “as is” basis, without warranty. While every
precaution has been taken in the preparation of each document, neither the submitter(s) nor NAFSA shall
have any liability to any persons nor entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be
caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in any of these documents. Please note that while
NAFSA verified the website links included in this e-Publication, NAFSA cannot guarantee that every link will
be current at the time of download.
Acceptable Use Guidelines
Electronic resources are provided for the benefit of the international education community. However,
commercial use, systematic or excessive downloading, and electronic redistribution of these publications are
all expressly prohibited.
Released 2012
© 2012 NAFSA: Association of International Educators. All rights reserved.
ii
New Approaches to Cooperation with Latin America
Table of Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Facts and Figures: Student Mobility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Opportunities and Challenges in Latin America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Why And How U.S. Students and Faculty Come to Latin America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Increased Competition for the United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Safety and Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Ensuring Equal Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Language Barriers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Communication and Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Quality, Accreditation, and Credit Transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Finding Areas of Academic Excellence to Solve Common Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Smart Collaboration at the Institutional Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
How Do We Increase Collaboration? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Recommendations for U.S. Institutions to Increase Cooperation with
Institutions in Latin America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Improve promotion of study opportunities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Find new funding models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Create professional development opportunities for faculty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Make institutional commitment for outreach to Latin American . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Provide language training for Latin American students and faculty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Initiatives to Increase Study Abroad Among Latin American Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Recommendations for Latin American Institutions to Increase Cooperation
with Institutions in the United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14
Bolster marketing and communication in English . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Develop curricula and support services that are attractive to U.S. institutions . . . . . . 14
Work with partners within Latin America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Faculty and staff development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Engage stakeholders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
iii
New Approaches to Cooperation with Latin America
Table of Contents (continued)
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14
End Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Forum on New Approaches to Cooperation with Latin America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Participants. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
NAFSA Staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
iv
New Approaches to Cooperation with Latin America
New Approaches to Cooperation with Latin America
Latin America is essential, argued Marlene M.
Johnson, NAFSA executive director and chief executive officer. “One of the goals of the [Simon legislation] is to increase the diversity of the destinations,
and make sure that the whole of the student population reflects the ethnic and economic diversity of the
United States,” she said at the forum’s opening.
Introduction
Despite geographic proximity, the gap between
higher education institutions in the United States
and their Latin American counterparts remains
wide, both in terms of student mobility and research
collaboration. For Latin Americans interested in
study or research in the United States, challenges
have included the prohibitive costs of U.S. higher
education, a lack of English proficiency, and tighter
immigration policies following the terrorist attacks of
September 11, 2001. In addition, other countries are
competing for Latin American students.
Facts and Figures: Student Mobility
While U.S. student participation in study abroad has
more than tripled over the past two decades, Europe
remains the destination of choice for more than half
of all American students going abroad.3 Just over 15
percent of American students abroad studied at institutions in Latin America, with 40,649 of the 270,604
students studying abroad heading to the region
in 2009-2010.4 Mexico is the only Latin American
country included in the top ten receiving countries for
U.S. students.5 After Mexico, the top destinations for
U.S. study abroad students in Latin America are Costa
Rica, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Belize,
Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic.
On the U.S. side, challenges to sending students
and scholars to Latin America have included risk
management and safety concerns, a lack of course
offerings in English, and lack of awareness of educational and research capacity in the region. Despite
a growing interest in non-traditional destinations
among U.S. students, the numbers choosing to study
in Latin America remain small.
An examination of such challenges and related
opportunities served as the backdrop for discussions at the forum, New Approaches to Cooperation
with Latin America, held at the NAFSA 2012 Annual
Conference & Expo in Houston, Texas.1 Thirty-nine
representatives of U.S. and Latin American universities, research institutes, and government agencies,
including the U.S. Department of State, gathered
to discuss current challenges and opportunities for
institutions in both regions. Individuals from public
and private higher education institutions representing Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa
Rica, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Peru, and Mexico met with
their counterparts from the United States and developed a set of recommendations.
In contrast, according to a 2008 UNESCO study,
approximately 40 percent of Latin American students
who study abroad go the United States.6 Mexico is
The forum supported NAFSA’s aim to help create
more awareness of and support for opportunities
in Latin America among U.S. students and scholars.
NAFSA has been the major proponent of the Senator
Paul Simon Study Abroad Foundation Act, which
aims to have one million U.S. students studying
abroad each year for the next ten years.2 Increased
student mobility and academic collaboration with
Source: Heisel, Margaret. Latin America Forum. Presentation, 2012;
Institute of International Education, “Open Doors 2011 Regional Fact
Sheet: Latin America,” Open Doors Report on International Education
Exchange, 2011.
1
New Approaches to Cooperation with Latin America
flow and how many students are you going to send
us. In a national strategy, all pieces of the puzzle have
to be in place to encourage students to come back.
[For example], if you don’t have a good research
infrastructure at home, they are not going to come
back [to their home countries].” Jaramillo added
that gathering statistics on joint degree programs
and joint research might be a task for international
educators in the future.
also the leading sending nation in Latin America,
with 13,450 Mexican students studying in the United
States in 2009-2010. Overall, 64,169 students from
Latin America studied in the United States in 20102011.7 This is a 2.2 percent decrease from the previous
year.8 This can be compared to the nearly half of
foreign students in the United States that come from
the top three sending countries—China, India, and
South Korea, which comprise 46 percent of the total
international enrollments in U.S. higher education.9
International education is a big business, according
to Jaramillo. In the United States, for example,
foreign students contributed 27.5 billion USD to
the national economy in 2010-2011.10 Latin America
has not yet fully taken advantage of the opportunities presented by internationalization, she said.
The exchange of students thus far has not been a
balanced two-way street. In global terms, only 7
percent of students studying abroad are from Latin
America, and as a study destination, the numbers are
even smaller. Less than 3 percent of students worldwide go to Latin America. “The countries that are
sending students and receiving students are clearly
not the same,” she said.
Opportunities and Challenges in Latin America
However, student mobility figures only tell part of
the story, argued Adriana Jaramillo, senior education
specialist at the World Bank.
“We don’t have statistics about other forms of internationalization, [such as] joint degrees,” she said.
“A lot of the discussion and media attention is on
student flow and student mobility, which is unfortunate, because we are missing other critical areas
[such as joint research projects] that...impact the
internationalization of higher education.”
Jaramillo emphasized the region would be well
poised to attract students from the United States
if it increases its awareness of the opportunities in
the international education market. She noted that
as American students are starting to look outside of
Europe, non-OECD countries are becoming increasingly important as destinations. U.S. students are
seeking cultural opportunities as well as education opportunities when selecting study destinations, and are attracted to what Latin America
offers. Latin American institutions could benefit
from improving recruitment of U.S. students, as
other countries worldwide are putting resources
into attracting and maintaining their incoming flow
of students.
Jaramillo argued that collaboration needs to be
“a two-way street,” using the analogy of import
and export. She explained that within international higher education, importers aim at bringing
the world to their campus by attracting students,
faculty, and staff from around the globe into their
programs, administration, and governing body.
Exporters, on the other hand, send their students
abroad via student-exchange agreements with
foreign institutions, deliver programs abroad, and
encourage their faculty to visit foreign universities
to teach and do research.
Jaramillo anticipated resistance from those who
might object to looking at international education
in terms of the exchange of goods and services:
“We don’t want to lose the objectives of education
and human development,” she said, “but the truth
is that educational services have [economic] implications. When we talk about cross-national education, we are obviously trading [educational services
and students] between the importers and exporters,
and in any agreement it’s important to have a
win-win situation.
While noting major differences between countries in the region, Jaramillo listed several common
challenges higher education systems in Latin
America face:
8 Slow adoption of modern curriculums and teaching approaches;
8 underqualified faculty;
8 lack of information on labor market responses; and
“In any type of bilateral agreement, there has to be
winning on both sides. It can’t just be about student
8 low research and development capacity.
2
Toward Globally Competent Pedagogy
8 Set clear goals and targets linked with the needs of
the nation;
The benefits of internationalization are not always
recognized, Jaramillo added, though it can help institutions capture revenue, boost the local economy,
and expand access to higher education. She said in
addition to the “capacity to generate revenue, there
are also important possibilities for expanding access
for new fields of knowledge.”
8 develop sound quality assurance practices;
8 establish policies and procedures for ease of
movement;
8 set a clear policy on the “export of educational services and private investment in higher
education”;
However, internationalization could lead to a potential loss of talent if Latin American nations don’t have
the necessary capacity to entice their students to
return home after spending time abroad. Countries
and institutions that have successfully internationalized have built their efforts on sound strategies. Jaramillo said a national internationalization strategy
should do the following:
8 promote regional mutual recognition of degrees
and credit transfer; and
8 foster innovation and research and development
capacity.
Successful Internationalization at Universidad de Monterrey
ranked number one among Mexican universities in
terms of student participation rate in study abroad
programs by Mundo Universitario, a magazine that
specializes in topics of higher education in Mexico.
More than half of its students participate in UDEM’s
study abroad programs before graduation. UDEM
is also among the top five Mexican universities in
terms of the percentage of international students
it receives. Currently, about 5 percent of all undergraduate students at UDEM are non-Mexican.
However, these achievements have to be considered in context. Only about 1.1 percent of Mexican
university students study outside Mexico, and
only about 0.1 percent of all students registered at
Mexican universities are non-Mexican.11
An example of an institution that has successfully
pursued an internationalization strategy is Mexico’s
Universidad de Monterrey (UDEM), which launched
its first strategic internationalization plan in 2007.
The strategy focused on six major areas:
1.
Student mobility, aiming to ensure 50 percent
of each graduating class will have had an international experience by the time they graduate;
2. Faculty mobility;
3. Internationalization of the curriculum;
4. Internationalization of the campus;
5. Internationalization of the institutional
culture; and
According to Thomas Buntru Wenzler, director of
the UDEM International Programs Office, internationalization strategies depend on the institutional
profile. “Large, public research-intensive universities might want to exploit their international
research links as a driver for internationalization.
Technological institutes could build on their relations with industry, especially multinational corporations. Smaller, private universities might start
with internationalization-at-home measures, especially [in terms of] the curriculum and student
mobility programs. In all cases, there should be
great emphasis on foreign language teaching and
learning and on the internationalization of the
faculty, since they have the most influence on the
students.”12
6. The establishment of strategic international
relationships for student exchange programs,
faculty exchange programs, and faculty
development.
A subsequent update to the strategy, known
at the university as Vision 2020, has included
increasing financial aid for study abroad; partnering with other Mexican universities; certifying its international and intercultural learning
outcomes; developing an international certificate
program; and constructing an international center
on campus.
The institution’s commitment to internationalization has paid off. Since 2006, UDEM has been
3
New Approaches to Cooperation with Latin America
There has also been a shift in what U.S. students
are going abroad to study. While students traditionally have gone abroad to study social sciences
and humanities, there has been tremendous
growth in the STEM disciplines, particularly within
engineering fields.13 Business is now the second
most popular major for students going abroad, and
there has also been considerable growth within
the health sciences. “That’s not to say that people
aren’t interested in language and culture, but the
emphasis on disciplinary knowledge is much more
important than it has been,” Heisel said. Latin
America in particular also attracts a lot of students
in media and communications, television, and
photography.
While participants at the NAFSA forum noted a
number of successful programs launched by Latin
American governments, they agreed it was prudent
to focus discussion at the institutional level, where
leaders in international education have the power to
make changes. According to Jaramillo, individual institutions need to develop internationalization strategies
in order to remain academically relevant in an interconnected and increasingly global world, to attract
the best students and faculty worldwide, to increase
and improve knowledge and research production, to
grow revenue, and to diversify their student bodies
and study abroad destinations. Policies that promote
regional and bilateral cooperation should furthermore articulate clear benefits for both importers and
exporters, provide funding to support cooperation
policies, and set up mechanisms to observe progress
on multiple goals.
Heisel said that the number of U.S. students in
Latin America who take classes only in Spanish
and only in English is roughly equal. In recent
years, about one-third of students take courses
only in Spanish, another third take classes in both
languages, and another third take courses taught
only in English. In the United States, enrollments in
university-level Spanish classes exceed those of all
other modern languages put together.14 In addition,
the number of U.S. students studying Portuguese
is also growing.
Why and How U.S. Students and Faculty
Come to Latin America
Margaret Heisel, director of the NAFSA Center for
Capacity Building in Study Abroad, outlined several
recent trends in what U.S. students are looking for
when they come to study in Latin America. She
argued that while more and more U.S. students
are interested in having an international education experience, the nature of that study abroad is
changing. Both job prospects and the amount of
time it takes to complete a degree are increasingly
important.
The leading study abroad models for U.S. students
in Latin America include programs organized by
third-party providers, those led by faculty, direct
enrollment through interinstitutional memorandum
of understanding (MOU),15 and independent direct
enrollment. Heisel argued that institutions should
be working on developing arrangements that
enable more direct enrollment, to help integrate U.S.
students into their host universities. Almost half of
U.S. students studying abroad in Latin America stay
for at least one semester.16
“When you put those two things together and think
about study abroad, it changes from a cultural experience to something where either job skills are
gained—[as] internships are becoming increasingly
important—but also the degree to which a student
can expand their command of the discipline or add a
new dimension to what they know,” she said.
While the Institute for International Education (IIE)
just released its first report on the number of U.S.
students pursuing degrees abroad—more than
43,000 in the thirteen countries involved in the
study—none of the countries covered in the report
were in Latin America.17 Forum participants noted
a difficulty in collecting both institutional data and
national data on the number of U.S. students who
might be directly enrolled in Latin American institutions, since such students are not obligated to report
their purpose for traveling overseas to any U.S.
authority.18
Heisel reiterated that while Europe continues to be
the top study abroad destination for U.S. students,
non-traditional, non-Anglophone destinations are
increasingly popular, citing Brazil as one of the top
contenders. China is another country that has seen
increased growth, largely due to the dynamism
of the Chinese economy and the degree to which
students and their parents are thinking of study
abroad as way to boost employment prospects when
they graduate.
4
New Approaches to Cooperation with Latin America
to U.S. higher education makes it difficult for national
governments seeking partnerships to know where to
turn when looking for potential partners.
Increased Competition for the United States
Historically, Latin American students preferred to
study in countries such as Spain, where they can
study in their own language. While the United States
currently remains the top destination of choice, Latin
American students are beginning to look beyond the
United States for study abroad options. While the
U.S. market share has declined, those of other countries, such as Australia and Canada, have increased.
Political leaders in countries such as Australia and
Canada make attracting study abroad students
a national priority, backing up their goals with a
variety of incentives. “There is a tremendous increase
in diversity of where Latin American students are
going,” said Ann Mason, executive director of the
Fulbright Commission in Colombia.
“These [Latin American countries] are developing
very concrete national policies and putting a lot of
money into doctoral training. Then they ask ‘Where
is my point of entry into the U.S. government?’ It’s
not the State Department, it’s not the Department
of Education, [and] it’s not the NSA, whereas the
Germans come in and say, ‘Hello, my name is DAAD’
(the German Academic Exchange Service),” Mason
said. “Education and research training is a national
priority in countries like France and Germany, but
there is no counterpart to negotiate with in the
United States.” Mason added this makes it “easier to
plug into those systems” as opposed to the United
States in terms of developing bilateral partnerships.
In Ecuador, the government is in the process of
establishing four new universities focusing on areas
such as pedagogical studies, technology and health
sciences, and the arts, according to Susana Cabeza
de Vaca, executive director of the Fulbright Commission in Ecuador. Although the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is involved with one of the
campuses, Ecuador is also fostering partnerships
with institutions in other countries, such as Korea,
Russia, and China. Because Ecuador has been off the
radar for many U.S. institutions, Cabeza de Vaca said,
“the United States is missing out, and other countries
are stepping in.”
Rita Moriconi, regional educational advising coordinator (REAC) for the Southern Cone19 of EducationUSA, the U.S. Department of State network
of advising centers, said that when conducting
outreach in Brazil, she has encountered STEM
departments that report partnerships with countries
such as Germany and France. “Where is the United
States?” she asked. “This is a golden opportunity
for U.S. universities to build those partnerships on a
department-to-department level.”
Safety and Security
In addition, she reported that 65 percent of students
in national post-graduate grant programs apply to
Spanish-speaking countries, with Australia as the
number one English-speaking destination.
One of the major challenges facing certain countries in Latin America is related to risk management and safety. The State Department currently
has travel warnings posted for Mexico and
Colombia, which discourage U.S. citizens from
visiting those countries. Some U.S. universities
and colleges have policies in place that prevent
them from sending students or doctoral candidates to countries with travel warnings in place,
while international educators face additional challenges recruiting students if they and their families
perceive a destination as unsafe.
Francisco Marmolejo, higher education coordinator
at the World Bank and former executive director
of the Consortium for North American Higher
Education Collaboration (CONAHEC), added that
some Latin American universities may see sending
students to the United States as potential competition. He reiterated Mason’s point that U.S. institutions
in general face increased competition from the rest
of the world. “U.S. higher education institutions need
to do much more work in becoming more aware
of the need to develop an adequate strategy,” he
said. “They can no longer take for granted that Latin
American students will come [to the United States].”
“Safety and security continue to be an issue,” said
Jean-Xavier Guinard, associate vice provost and
executive director at the University of California
Education Abroad Program (UCEAP). “We do have
a process where we can make exceptions to U.S.
Department of State travel warnings, but try to
explain that to students and their parents.”
Mason added that in countries like Colombia, the
lack of a national international education strategy or
single agency in the United States providing access
5
New Approaches to Cooperation with Latin America
the United States limits the diversity of incoming
students to those who are able to pay for it out of
pocket. Many countries allow incoming international
students to work off campus to help pay for their
education, but foreign students in the United States
are limited to on-campus employment.
The State Department has recently begun breaking
down travel warnings within the aforementioned
countries by region, which has subsequently allowed
many U.S. institutions to make more nuanced decisions about whether or not to send students there.
Susan Gronbeck-Tedesco, associate vice provost of
international programs at the University of Kansas,
also said that her institution has long had a policy
that states they won’t support study abroad in countries which have travel warnings, but the situation is
changing. Her university is currently implementing a
review process that looks at State Department warnings and then examines infrastructure and the support
available to students. “I see a change happening in the
United States [with regard to] not having such a kneejerk reaction to travel warnings,” she said.
“Any students who want to travel abroad are looking
at the big picture. How are they going to pay for it?
They might get a scholarship [to cover tuition], but
how do they live?” said Edward Roekaert, president
of the Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola (USIL) in
Lima, Peru.
An institution that has pursued a successful strategy
to increase the diversity of its outbound students
is Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso in
Chile. According to Marcos Avilez, director of International Programs, the university uses tuition from
incoming U.S. students to fund study abroad for
Chilean students. According to Avilez, each year they
receive 850 U.S. students and send 200 of their own
students abroad.21
Several participants pointed out that diversity of
destinations is one solution for the safety considerations discussed above. Stephen Kolison, associate vice president for Academic, Faculty, and
Global Programs at the University of Wisconsin, said
that his institution has decided to diversify more to
abate security concerns. “We had to cancel summer
classes because we didn’t have somewhere else to
go,” he said.
He stressed the importance of sending undergraduate students abroad, as that’s commonly a
time when an interest in international issues is first
sparked. Avilez explained that many of their students
are the first generation in their families to study at a
university, and many of them don’t even have money
to get passports. Supporting domestic students
by investing fees from incoming students creates
opportunities.
Ensuring Equal Access
While creating diversity in destinations might be
important for study abroad offices to deal with
challenges related to safety and security, diversity
also matters in terms of ensuring equal access to
international experiences for students regardless of
socio-economic or ethnic background. The majority
of U.S. students going abroad have traditionally
been white women.20
Other leaders focus on creative agreements between
institutions to fund exchange, which doesn’t necessarily have to be one-for-one. According to Susan
Gronbeck-Tedesco, for example, the University
of Kansas sends 15 undergraduate study abroad
students to Latin America in exchange for providing
one semester of training and housing for a single
PhD candidate.
A lack of diversity has been a concern for New
Mexico State University, whose student body has
a majority Latino population, according to David
Hansen, director of Latin American Outreach and
Engagement. One of the university’s diversity goals
is providing study abroad opportunities to students
who might not otherwise have the chance to travel.
Additionally, virtual technology is seen as a means
of increasing access to international, cross-cultural
learning experiences for students who might not be
able to travel abroad.
On the Latin American side, there is also a desire
to increase access to international experiences to
economically disadvantaged students. In many countries, such as Argentina and Chile, students pay little
or no tuition for higher education at public institutions. In contrast, the high cost of education in
Language Barriers
Both Latin America and the United States face problems related to foreign language proficiency among
both students and faculty. The small number of
6
New Approaches to Cooperation with Latin America
that many foreign students still take Spanish as an
elective.
Latin American faculty who can teach in English, for
instance, means a lack of courses offered in English,
effectively limiting the number of U.S. students who
are able to study in Latin America because their skills
in Spanish or Portuguese are also weak.
Even though more students at U.S. universities study
Spanish than all other modern languages combined,
representatives of Latin American institutions also
expressed concern about students’ ability to study
other subjects in Spanish. They expressed concern
about the quality of Spanish instruction in the United
States and the challenge of measuring a student’s
actual proficiency, rather than the number of semesters they have taken a language class.
“A relatively small number of U.S. students and
faculty speak languages other than English, which
makes connecting with Latin American institutions a challenge, both in terms of collaboration at
the institutional level and [with] faculty and student
exchange,” said Marmolejo, of the World Bank.
Many U.S. institutions remain committed to placing
students in programs abroad where they can
increase their foreign language proficiency. Brett
Berquist, executive director of the Office of Study
Abroad at Michigan State University, reported that
one of the challenges for MSU at the administrative level in terms of institutional partnerships has
been navigating differences between students who
want to develop their Spanish language skills, versus
those who want courses taught in English. He spoke
about difficulty in communication with potential
partners. “It’s not always easy to get at that information, particularly at the initial stages of partnerships.
Curricular articulation is a challenge due to a lack of
guarantee of course offerings,” he said.
Others point to models outside of the Americas as
examples of best practice when it comes to attracting
both U.S. and other international students. “While
institutions in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East have
set up competitive strategies to offer programs in
English, institutions in Latin America only offer their
programs in Spanish [or Portuguese]. Although this
may be seen as a genuine effort to promote Spanish
[or Portuguese], it ends up creating a big disincentive for English speaking students (or those that speak
another language) to come to Latin America for study
abroad,” said USIL’s Edward Roekaert.
Roekaert noted that mobility schemes in Europe
through the Bologna agreement and Erasmus
program22 have allowed students to study in any
other country in English. “This eliminates or reduces
the fear or concern of having to study in another
language with the associated risk of lowering their
grades or losing a scholarship,” he said.
While U.S. students face difficulties mastering
Spanish and Portuguese, proficiency in English
remains a challenge for both students and faculty
in Latin America. To increase their provision of
courses in English, institutions need faculty capable
of teaching in English. By the same token, Latin
American students lack the English skills not only
to succeed academically in the United States, but
also to pass proficiency exams, such as the Test of
English as a Foreign Language, or TOEFL, required
for admission to U.S. universities.
Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola has solved this
problem by partnering with Broward College in
Florida to offer a U.S. degree to both incoming
students as well as local students who earn both a
U.S. degree and a Peruvian degree. Broward exports
its curriculum to various partner institutions, which
have received U.S. accreditation and offer coursework in English to local students as well as U.S.
students studying abroad.
Moriconi of EducationUSA said that State Department advising centers hold workshops on how to
improve skills needed to be able to pass the TOEFL
and are in the process of developing a strategy to
provide language classes online. “Our goal has been
promoting language acquisition and making it easy,”
she said.
According to Roekaert, even though a U.S. student
may know Spanish, he or she will feel more comfortable studying in English while becoming more able
to experience the culture in Spanish. “At our university we not only offer complete American degrees
in English, but also at least 30 percent of all courses
at the university are also offered in English. This has
increased the number of foreign students at the
university by more than 150 percent,” he said, adding
Reaching university-level proficiency in English is
very challenging, however, unless language studies
are intensive.
7
New Approaches to Cooperation with Latin America
Luiz Valcov Loureiro, executive director of the
Fulbright Commission in Brazil, noted that language
proficiency is perhaps the country’s biggest challenge. “What is stopping Brazil? A lack of English.
Only 2 percent of Brazilians speak English and less
than that percent of North Americans speak Portuguese,” he said, adding that increasing study abroad
opportunities for U.S. students in Brazil is not a question of finance. “Our universities have [the] money.”
tion to rankings companies and other bodies who
publish information about higher education institutions and systems. Above and beyond getting
information about study abroad opportunities to
U.S. students, there is also a need to increase U.S.
faculty awareness of high-quality universities in Latin
America. Universities need to promote their disciplinary strengths, especially within emerging areas of
research such as climate change and global health,
to help find potential partners for exchange and
research collaboration.
Loureiro explained that in a call for a scholarship for
undergraduate students in the STEM disciplines to
go to the United States, they received 3,000 applicants for 1,000 spots. At the same time, they had
18,000 applicants for 1,000 spots to go to Portugal.
“This is the dimension of the language problem,” he
said, noting that addressing language challenges will
take several years.
Roekaert of USIL said the key to both student
mobility and faculty collaboration is “having information out there and in the right language. We
need to make information (curriculum, syllabi) available online about how our system and our institutions work, so an American institution can find it
and understand it, and then [we can] start working
together.”
Significant growth of the U.S. population who
speak Spanish as a first language was also a topic
of discussion at the NAFSA forum. NAFSA forum
participants anticipated openness among Latinos
in the United States to educational opportunities in
Latin America. Furthermore, the number of Latinos in
higher education is projected to increase significantly
in the next 10-15 years as U.S. demographics shift. “As
you think about distinctive niches of students whom
you should target for study in Latin America, that’s
one population you should think about,” one NAFSA
forum participant said.
As a model of best practice, many point to countries that have launched aggressive marketing
campaigns promoting themselves as study destinations. Two examples of Latin American countries that
have launched websites promoting national study
abroad are Brazil and Chile, with www.studyinbrazil.
org and www.thisischile.cl. Another positive step has
been increased representation of Latin American
universities at international education events such as
NAFSA’s annual conference.
Universities in countries with travel warnings were
also advised to provide information about risk
management and safety in their own cities, to reassure students and their families about studying there.
Communication and Marketing
Language barriers aren’t the only challenges to
communication between U.S. and Latin American
institutions. Often, a lack of awareness of opportunities for exchange and scholarship exists on both
sides. While Latin American students may choose
to pursue full degrees in the United States due
to the high perceived quality of U.S. education in
general, the sheer diversity of the U.S. higher education system means that options beyond Ivy League
schools and major research institutions are often
overlooked. And despite the existence of high-quality
institutions in Latin America, many U.S. faculty and
students are unaware of their capacity.
Quality, Accreditation, and Credit Transfer
To combat the perception of the poor quality of
their education, NAFSA forum participants said
Latin American universities need to engage in public
relations work to promote their educational offerings and provide more sophisticated informa-
One of the major messages of any marketing
campaign promoting Latin American institutions
should be about the quality of education of particular departments, as well as clear curricular articulation to enable transparency in the credit transfer
process. “For those who are serious about attracting
Hazel Blackmore, executive director of the U.S.Mexico Commission for Educational & Cultural
Exchange (COMEXUS), pointed out that communications activities need to be concentrated on social
media, especially to reach out to students. “People
are not looking for information anymore; the information is finding them,” she said.
8
New Approaches to Cooperation with Latin America
universities interested in providing their students
with fascinating, safe, and reliable study abroad
options.”
students, it’s not about setting up an international office but [about] increasing the quality in
the faculties,” said Alejandro Hernandez, provost of
the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México in
Mexico City.
As Roekaert puts it, investing in high-quality infrastructure for incoming students “reduces the
perceived risks in the transaction.”
Many institutional representatives on both sides cited
a lack of information about the differences in educational systems and curricula to be a major challenge
to collaboration. This in turn leads to difficulties with
credit transfer, which is of particular concern for U.S.
students. One NAFSA participant noted that Latin
American institutions also lack understanding about
the variety of educational systems within the region
itself. He pointed to the need to develop regionwide
tuning instruments to increase transparency and
portability of degrees between countries, similar to
what has been done in Europe through the Bologna
process.23
Finding Areas of Academic Excellence to Solve
Common Challenges
Margaret Heisel concluded her presentation at the
NAFSA forum with reference to common challenges
for Latin America and the United States: “What are
the global problems facing the world that this generation of students is going to have to deal with, and
what do we have to offer them educationally that is
going to address these problems?”
Some Latin American institutions have addressed
concerns about quality by seeking accreditation from the United States. Universidad Mayor in
Santiago became the first higher education institution in Chile to be accredited for educational quality
by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE),24 largely because of a dual degree in
international management, in cooperation with Texas
Christian University (TCU). United States accreditation is an obvious way to gain credibility among
potential U.S. partner institutions.
Academic collaboration can be increased by defining
distinctive niches of excellence that Latin American
institutions can occupy, one participant pointed out.
One strategy is raising awareness among U.S. faculty
about which Latin American institutions would be
the best match for their particular area of research,
using some of the addressed marketing and communications activities. Another approach is designing
programs and joint research projects that focus on
common challenges facing Latin America and the
United States.
Although it already offers dual degree through a U.S.
institution, the Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola
(USIL) in Lima, Peru is also seeking accreditation
as an institution. “We are currently in the process
of accrediting our university, allowing us to share
common standards of excellence worldwide. Accreditation is a critical issue when an institution wishes to
partner with American universities,” Roekaert said.
One place where Latin America has a distinct
research advantage is in the area of climate change.
For example, a recent survey from MIT showed
that 95 percent of major cities in Latin America are
planning for climate change, compared to only 59
percent of such cities in the United States. Quito,
Ecuador is considered a global leader in areas such
as studying the effects of global warming on nearby
melting glaciers and developing ways of dealing with
potential water shortage.25
However, the need for high quality extends beyond
the classroom. Valcov Loureiro of the Fulbright
Commission in Brazil said that Brazilian institutions,
for example, often lack the necessary infrastructure—
room and board, immigration advising, and so on—
to support international students. “We need to start
investing in offering high-quality reception for international students,” he said.
José Lever, Mexico coordinator at the University of
Arizona, said that his institution has focused efforts
on developing bilateral research in areas where they
have a lot in common with Mexican institutions, such
as biotechnology, environmental sciences, climate
change, and pharmacology. Other areas where they
are active include business, technology transfer,
and innovation. Through partnerships with Mexican
centers of excellence, they are trying to foster a
better understanding of how innovation works,
Roekaert agrees. “The opening of international
centers and student housing options is another way
of developing excellent working relationships with
9
New Approaches to Cooperation with Latin America
identify business opportunities from emerging technologies, and help market them in order to foster
better economic prospects in the region. They are
also building a network of U.S. university representatives, including institutions such as the University
of Southern California, the State University of New
York, and Texas A&M.“[We want to] work together
with not only with Mexican higher education, but
also with the Mexican National Council on Science
and Technology (CONACYT— Consejo Nacional de
Ciencia y Tecnología),26 to address regional challenges and identify ways to bring faculties together
to discover some of the best places to do research
on these topics,” Lever said.
Duke Endowment and the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation.28
Smart Collaboration at the Institutional Level
Many NAFSA forum participants called for what
Jaramillo referred to as a “two-way street.” Ann
Mason said there is a need for “smart programs.”
“We need to look at internationalization in a
much broader context, [for example, with] faculty
exchange, collaborative research endeavors,
investing mutually in research infrastructure, and
developing those in a mutually beneficial way,”
she said.
Ann Mason, of the Fulbright Commission, reported
that in Colombia she has witnessed a move away
from traditional research interests where U.S.-based
faculty in the social sciences and humanities travel
to Latin America, observe, do field work, and return
home without developing partnerships with local
institutions. United States researchers are increasingly interested in tapping into local expertise in
areas such as tropical disease, lesser known agricultural techniques, and biodiversity. “Purdue [University], for example, has aggressively moved into
setting up a robust nanotechnology research agenda
in Colombia, drawing on local expertise,” Mason said.
“This is revolutionizing what we are seeing in terms
of U.S. faculty interest in the region.”
Establishing centers for Latin American Studies in
the United States and in Latin America provides a
natural point of contact for development of partnerships. Michigan State University, for instance, has
established the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies,29 as have several other U.S. institutions.
According to Marcos Avilez, Pontificia Universidad
Catolica de Valparaiso has worked with Arcadia
University in Pennsylvania to establish a Center for
Latin American Studies.30
Another approach is developing consortia of institutions, either across borders or within the same
country. According to David Hansen, Latin American
outreach and engagement director, New Mexico
State University joined with Oklahoma State and
the University of North Texas (UNT) to develop a
program in sustainable tourism in Costa Rica. “We
joined together to get critical student mass,” he said.
Another area that is of interest to U.S. faculty and
scholars is service learning. Brett Berquist said that
many of Michigan State’s study abroad programs
have been articulated around service learning and
community engagement.
The program is affiliated with UNT’s 2-year master of
science in international sustainable tourism (MIST)31
offered in partnership with CATIE, the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center, in
Turrialba, Costa Rica. Students from New Mexico
State University, Oklahoma State University, and UNT
can earn six academic credits while studying the
principles of sustainability in hospitality and tourism,
learning from people who have put sustainable
concepts into practice in Costa Rica.
“As a region, Latin America is particularly well-suited
for that type of learning,” he said. He added one
drawback is that their model is based on facultyled groups, rather than partnerships with local
institutions.
Steve Vetter, president and CEO of Partners of
the Americas, said that Latin America students
are equally interested in service learning. He was
involved with the 2nd World Summit for Youth
Volunteering in Barranquilla, Colombia in November
2011.27 They expected 300 participants, and had 900.
Jaramillo pointed to the example of the Tennessee
Consortium for International Studies,32 a group of
nineteen colleges and universities in the state of
Tennessee that offers 3-4 week study abroad opportunities in Brazil, the Galapagos Islands, and Peru, as
well as other destinations around the world. Margaret
Vetter also cited the Duke Engage program, a
$36 million domestic and international volunteer
program for Duke undergraduates, funded by The
10
New Approaches to Cooperation with Latin America
tional and research opportunities on both sides, as
well as develop smart models of collaboration with
mutual benefit. Both U.S. and Latin American institutions need to increase the accessibility of study
abroad opportunities to make sure every student has
a chance to explore another culture and education
system, increasing the diversity of students going
abroad, as well as improving language capabilities of
both students and faculty. There was also agreement
that faculty and university leaders must commit to
leading internationalization efforts, and institutions
should build on momentum from individual actors,
such as building on relationships of faculty members
who were educated at an institution in another
country. Below are several additional recommendations that came out of the NAFSA forum.
Heisel also cited a consortium which offers an interdisciplinary program on development and social
inequality, consisting of Howard University, Vanderbilt University, Universidade de Sao Paulo and
Universidade Federal da Bahia.33
While community colleges were not discussed in
depth at the forum, several participants mentioned
they may provide fruitful grounds for collaboration
for Latin American universities, particularly in relation to workforce training. John Matel, public affairs
officer at the U.S. Embassy in Brasilia, reported that
several community colleges have been active in
Brazil. Houston Community College (HCC) in Texas,
Jackson Community College in Michigan, and Red
Rocks Community College in Colorado have been
involved in establishing U.S.-Brazil Connect. The
initiative sends U.S. community college students to
Brazil to help improve Brazilian high school students’
English through instruction and daily interaction.34
Recommendations for U.S. Institutions to
Increase Cooperation with Institutions in
Latin America
David Hansen said that New Mexico State University
has also enriched their exchange programs to Latin
America, by involving community colleges that have
technical and professional programs.
Improve promotion of study
opportunities
At the national level, an example a bilateral partnership to build capacity is the German-Argentine
University Centre (DAHZ-CUAA), which was established in 2009, and primarily aims to promote the
development of dual degrees between the two
countries.
One of the biggest challenges on both sides is lack
of awareness of study opportunities. To make themselves more attractive to students and faculty in
Latin America, participants recommended that
U.S. institutions clearly articulate goals for partnerships. Latin American institutions are also concerned
with quality and rankings, so U.S. institutions need
to better communicate their strengths to help their
counterparts determine best matches for Latin
American students. This is particularly important for
institutions beyond the Ivy League and well-known
research institutions. To improve recruitment in Latin
America, U.S. institutions can tap into their own
alumni networks there to help encourage students
to study at their institution. Another suggestion was
to further train EducationUSA advisers who assist
students in learning about study in the United States.
How Do We Increase Collaboration?
Find new funding models
After two days of intense discussion at the
NAFSA forum, participants were asked to break
into two groups to come up with recommendations for institutions in the United States and Latin
America, to boost bilateral movement of students
and scholars as well as joint research collaboration. There was consensus that measures need to
be taken to increase mutual awareness of educa-
On the Latin American side, one of the biggest
concerns was related to the funding of partnerships and study abroad opportunities. Several participants pointed to projects that had been successful
in their initial phases that fell to the wayside once
donor funding ran out. David Hansen of New Mexico
State University suggested that U.S. institutions
sustain long-term commitments by providing institu-
Other NAFSA forum participants noted institutionto-government partnerships. One such example is
the Chile-University of California partnership, which
was launched between the Chilean government and
the University of California system in 2008 when
former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet visited
California. She signed several memoranda of understanding between the University of California and the
Chilean government.35
11
New Approaches to Cooperation with Latin America
trip to a partner institution. Institutions were also
encouraged to recognize faculty for international
achievements and offer incentives such as reducing
course loads for leading study abroad programs, or
providing funding for curricular revisions to include
greater international content.
tional funds for continuing partnerships in the form
of bridge funding. He pointed out that the amount
needed for such institutional maintenance was quite
small compared to initial investments.
U.S. institutions were also encouraged to look at new
and innovative funding models to bring students
and faculty to their campuses. Examples included
offering tuition reduction for non-degree seeking
students, offering in-state tuition during summer
terms, and more “creative” exchanges, such as the
example of the University of Kansas sending 15 U.S.
undergraduates to Latin America in exchange for
one Latin American PhD candidate.43 Another participant suggested using student fees to support study
abroad, for example, creating scholarships for minorities, which in turn increase the diversity of the study
abroad population. U.S. institutions were also encouraged to advocate for the U.S. government and state
governments to provide funding to support institutional collaboration, as well as seek partnerships with
business and industry.
Make institutional commitment for
outreach to Latin American
U.S. institutions should make an institutional commitment to promoting global competence. It is also
important for U.S. institutions to recognize the
importance of Latin America for the future of the
United States. One way to signal to Latin American
partners that an institution is serious about developing partnerships in the region is to hire dedicated
staff for Latin American outreach.44
Provide language training for Latin
American students and faculty
Since one of the major challenges for Latin American students to study in the United States is their
language proficiency, participants recommended
that U.S. institutions offer summer programs in
English to help students improve their ability to
study in the United States. Providing English training
to Latin American faculty would also improve their
ability to host American students at their home
institutions.
Create professional development
opportunities for faculty
Another recommendation was for U.S. institutions to
provide professional development opportunities for
faculty to learn about Latin America in the United
States and gain international experience in Latin
America. This could include offering faculty courses
in Spanish or Portuguese and providing a funded
Initiatives to Increase Study Abroad Among Latin American Students
The Ecuadorian government has also signed an
agreement to enable study abroad for disadvantaged students from Ecuador, in which the
government will top off funds provided by U.S.
institutions.
Ecuador
According to Susana Cabeza de Vaca, executive
director of the Fulbright Commission in Ecuador,
the national government in Ecuador has invested
heavily in exchange programs, setting up agreements with U.S. institutions to send two Ecuadorian students to the United States for every ten
U.S. students. They also offered 1,700 fully funded
grants for post-graduate work for 2011-2012, with
more grants being offered for the next two years.
Cabeza de Vaca said that the Ministry of Education is sending 500, then 1,200, and then 3,000
teachers to study intensive English in the United
States for the next three years, respectively.36
A fourth initiative is the National Secretariat of
Science, Technology, and Innovation (SENACYT)
Prometeo program, which provides grants for
foreign researchers who want to come to Ecuador
on a one-year sabbatical to help build research
capacity.37
12
New Approaches to Cooperation with Latin America
Initiatives to Increase Study Abroad Among Latin American Students (continued)
the president’s goal in terms of origins of students
and destinations as well as the ethnic, national,
and socioeconomic background of students.
Finn reported that 50 percent of Latin American
students in the United States now study in four
states: New York, California, Florida, and Texas. The
State Department aims to diversify the locations
where foreign students go.
Brazil
The Brazilian government’s Brazilian Scientific
Mobility Program38 provides scholarships to undergraduate students from Brazil for one year of study
at colleges and universities in the United States.
Scholarships are primarily granted to students in
the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. Students in the program will
return to Brazil to complete their degrees. This
program, administered by the Institute of International Education (IIE), is part of the Brazilian
government’s initiative to grant 100,000 scholarships for top students from Brazil to study abroad
at the high-ranking world universities by 2014.
John Matel, of the U.S. Embassy Brazil, noted that
finding enough students who have the English
proficiency necessary to go abroad is a particular
challenge for this program.
“Studying in Nebraska, or Pullman, Washington,
provides a much different experience than
studying in New York,” Finn said.
Unfortunately, the program remains largely
unfunded, instead relying on individual institutions and the private sector to help meet its
ambitious goal.
In addition to such initiatives and those through
Fulbright and Education USA offices, the U.S. State
Department’s embassies can help institutions
work with foreign governments, Finn said, using
programs such as Science without Borders. The
State Department has also helped bring university
representatives together. Between February and
March 2012, for example, they brought 28 Brazilian
education leaders to the United States to visit
campuses around the country.40
Chile
An example of how a national government is
increasing the diversity of its outgoing students is
in Chile, which launched the Becas Chile scholarship program in 2008. This $6 billion initiative aims
to award 3,300 scholarships annually between
2009 and 2018. According to BMI Media, the
program covers tuition fees, living expenses, travel,
and medical insurance for recipients, which has
been especially important in making study abroad
more accessible to economically disadvantaged
students. Recipients must also sign a contract
agreeing to return home after the completion of
their studies abroad.39
In Brazil, Fulbright, Education USA, and the U.S.
Trade Mission in Brazil are working with the
100,000 Strong initiative to foster global partnership dialogues with the Brazilian government,
according to Rita Moriconi, Southern Cone regional
educational advising coordinator (REAC) with
EducationUSA.
This is the first time the trade mission has partnered with a foreign commercial service. Coordinating with EducationUSA, U.S. Commerce
Department Under Secretary for International
Trade Francisco Sánchez traveled to Brazil in
September 2012 with representatives from 66
universities, exploring international student recruitment and institutional partnership opportunities in
Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro, and Sao Paulo.41 The State
Department has also recently funded a conference
on higher education in Latin America at Georgetown University.42
U.S.-Latin America Initiatives
In 2011, the United States launched President
Obama’s 100,000 Strong in the Americas initiative, which aims to increase international study in
Latin America and the Caribbean. According to
John Finn, former coordinator of the program for
the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Western
Hemisphere Affairs, the initiative’s goal is to send
100,000 U.S. students to Latin America and the
Caribbean and bring 100,000 Latin American and
Caribbean students to the United States by 2020.
Finn said the State Department added diversity to
13
New Approaches to Cooperation with Latin America
Recommendations for Latin American Institutions
to Increase Cooperation with Institutions in the
United States
provide innovative models to work with U.S. partners.
Another recommendation was to encourage the
use of technology in the classroom—through online
courses, for instance—to offer joint programs.
Bolster marketing and
communication in English
Faculty and staff development
Due to lack of English among Latin American
faculty, Latin American institutions were encouraged to provide their faculty with opportunities to
increase competence in English, and subsequently,
their ability to teach classes in English. Above and
beyond teaching, institutions should work with staff
to develop competence in areas such as international
student advising to provide assistance with visas,
and so on.
A lack of information about study opportunities, as
well as information about institutions and higher
education systems, was cited as one of the major
reasons U.S. institutions don’t send students and
faculty to Latin America. One of the recommendations was to publish information online in English
about the higher education system, the university,
and courses (such as with syllabi or course descriptions). Latin American institutions were also encouraged to develop marketing and communication
plans, including social media, to better articulate the
quality and rankings of their institutions so more U.S.
students and faculty are aware of their strengths and
areas of expertise. Latin American institutions should
also provide nuanced information on safety and
security.
Engage stakeholders
Latin American institutions were encouraged to
engage more stakeholders in their efforts to achieve
internationalization. Strategic plans should go
beyond student mobility and invite a wider group of
stakeholders to participate, including alumni and the
local community.
Develop curricula and support services
that are attractive to U.S. institutions
Conclusion
Representatives of U.S. institutions recommended
that Latin American institutions develop coursework
that will help U.S. students complete their majors.
For those students who do not speak Spanish or
Portuguese, courses in English would make study
abroad in Latin America more accessible. Two other
areas of particular interest are service learning
programs to help U.S. students engage with the
communities where they are studying, and internship opportunities with local industry and business.
Another recommendation was to provide assistance
with applications, visas, housing, orientation, and
in-country support.
The major goal of the NAFSA forum was to bring
together international education leaders from the
United States and Latin America to stimulate new
thinking on overcoming challenges to higher education cooperation. The recommendations outlined
above are another outcome of the forum that need
to be widely shared with and discussed by the international education community in the United States
and Latin America. This report is a means of sharing
that information.
The next step will be to identify institutional priorities and the concrete actions that need to be taken
to implement them. NAFSA will bring together the
participants next year at its annual conference in St.
Louis, but much of the work to deepen cooperation
is up to individual staff and faculty at individual institutions. We encourage forum participants as well
as anyone else who is engaged in higher education
in Latin America and the United States to continue
these conversations across borders.
Work with partners within Latin America
Latin American institutions were encouraged to look
at other institutions within their own countries, as
well as the region as a whole, for examples of best
practice, especially in the areas of joint degrees
and English teaching. Inter-regional collaboration
through bilateral partnerships or consortia could also
14
New Approaches to Cooperation with Latin America
End Notes
12. See note 11.
1. Latin American Forum. NAFSA 2012 Annual Conference & Expo, Houston, Texas. May 27-28, 2012.
13. See the Colloquium on International Engineering
Education at the University of Rhode Island as an
example: http://www.uri.edu/iep/colloquia/2012/
2. One million students represents approximately
half of U.S. college students graduating each year.
“Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Act,” NAFSA:
Association of International Educators. Accessed
Oct. 30, 2012.
14. Furman, Nelly, David Goldberg, and Natalia Lusin.
“Enrollments in Languages Other Than English in
United States Institutions of Higher Education, Fall
2009,” Web publication. The Modern Language Association of America, 2010. p. 3.
3. The United Kingdom is the leading destination for
study abroad, according to the Institute of International Education’s “U.S. Study Abroad: Leading Destinations.” Open Doors 2011 Report on International
Education Exchange.
15. Oregon State University has a good example of
an MOU on their International Programs website,
accessed here: http://oregonstate.edu/international/
studyabroad/faculty/develop
4. Institute of International Education. “Host Regions
of U.S. Study Abroad Students.” Open Doors 2011
Report on International Educational Exchange.
Retrieved from http://www.iie.org/opendoors
16. Williamson, Wendy. “Latin America Study
Abroad Growing,” Dec. 9, 2009. Facultyled.
com, accessed at http://www.facultyled.com/
latin-america-study-abroad-survey/
5. Institute of International Education. “Fast Facts.”
Open Doors 2011 Report on International Educational
Exchange.
6. Chiche-Portiche, Olivier. “Panorama of Student
Mobility in Latin America.” UNESCO-IESALC. http://
bit.ly/q08T3k.
17. Belyavina, Raisa and Rajika Bhandari,
U.S. Students in Overseas Degree Programs:
Key Destinations and Fields of Study. Institute of International Education, 2012. Accessed
at http://www.iie.org/Research-and-Publications/Publications-and-Reports/IIE-Bookstore/
US-Students-In-Overseas-Degree-Programs.
7. 64,169 students from Latin America out of a worldwide total of 723,277. Institute of International
Education. “Fast Facts.” Open Doors 2011 Report on
International Educational Exchange.
18. One example of a Latin American country that
has just released its first student mobility survey is
Mexico. The report is available in Spanish at www.
patlanimexico.org.
8. Institute of International Education. “Latin American Region Fact Sheet 2011.” Open Doors Report on
International Educational Exchange.
19. Education USA’s Southern Cone oversees 37
offices in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and
Uruguay.
9. Institute of International Education. “International Student Enrollment Increased by 5 Percent in
2010/11, Led by Strong Increase in Students From
China” Press release, Nov. 14, 2011.
20. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), around 65 percent of American students who studied abroad were female, and
82 to 84 percent were white, between 1996-1997 to
2007-2008. http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d10/
tables/dt10_233.asp
10. Jaramillo, Adriana. “Internationalization of Higher
Education: Issues, Challenges, and Opportunities.”
Latin America Forum presentation, NAFSA 2012
Annual Conference & Expo, Houston, Texas. May
27-28, 2012. See participant list.
21. Marcos Avilez comments, Latin American Forum.
NAFSA 2012 Annual Conference & Expo, Houston,
Texas. May 27-28, 2012. See participant list.
11. From “Internationalization at UDEM,” an internal
report prepared by Thomas Buntru Wenzler for the
International Advisory Board of Student Affairs,
February 2012.
22. The Erasmus Program is an EU exchange student
program in operation since the late 1980s.
15
New Approaches to Cooperation with Latin America
23. See West, Charlotte. “Ripple Effects—The
Bologna Process, Ten Years On.” International
Educator. Nov/Dec 2010. http://www.nafsa.org/_/
File/_/novdec10_bologna.pdf
36. Statements by Susana Cabeza de Vaca, Latin
American Forum. NAFSA 2012 Annual Conference &
Expo, Houston, Texas. May 27-28, 2012. See participant list.
24. See “Universidad Mayor,” Middle States Commission on Higher Education. Accessed Nov. 16, 2012.
37. For more information on the Prometeo program,
visit http://prometeo.senescyt.gob.ec/portal/en/
web/prometeo/por-que-ecuador
25. Dizikes, Peter. “Survey: Latin American and Asian
cities lead way in planning for global warming,” MIT
News Office, 2012.
38. “Brazil Scientific Mobility Program,” The Institute
of International Education. Accessed at http://www.
iie.org/en/Programs/Brazil-Scientific-Mobility
26. “Home,” Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y
Tecnología website, http://www.conacyt.mx.
39. “Chilean government postgraduate scholarship program increase overseas study,” BMI Media.
Accessed at https://www.bmimedia.net/bmi/news.
php?cod=18
27. International Association for Volunteer Effort, World Youth Summit, Nov.
3-5, 2011. http://www.iave.org/content/
iave-world-youth-summit-2011-november-3-5-2011
40. Statements by John Matel, Latin American
Forum. NAFSA 2012 Annual Conference & Expo,
Houston, Texas. May 27-28, 2012. See participant list.
28. “Home,” DukeEngage. Accessed Oct. 31, 2012 at
http://dukeengage.duke.edu/.
41. “Obama Trade Official to Lead Historic Education
Trade Mission to Brazil,” International Trade Administration, Aug. 6, 2012. Accessed Oct. 31, 2012.
29. “Home,” Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Michigan State University. Accessed at
http://latinamerica.isp.msu.edu/
42. For more information, see “International Conference on Latin America at Georgetown University,” at
http://www.georgetown.edu/content/1242677573561.
html.
30. “Arcadia in Chile Summer Program,” Arcadia
University, 2012. Accessed at http://www.arcadia.
edu/abroad/default.aspx?id=37016
31. See degree information the University of North
Texas website. Accessed at http://www.smhm.unt.
edu/mist/.
43. University of Kansas example, Susan GronbeckTedesco, Latin American Forum. NAFSA 2012 Annual
Conference & Expo, Houston, Texas. May 27-28, 2012.
See participant list.
32. “Home,” Tennessee Consortium for International
Studies. Accessed at www.tncis.org.
44. David Hansen, for example, director of Latin
America outreach and engagement at New Mexico
State University.
33. For more information on the consortium, see
http://sitemason.vanderbilt.edu/fipsecapes/fipse
34. “About Us,” US-Brazil Connect. Accessed at
http://us-brazil.org/about/.
35. “Overview of the University of California and
the Chile-UC Partnership,” University of California.
Accessed at chile.universityofcalifornia.edu/.
16
New Approaches to Cooperation with Latin America
David Hansen, director of Latin America outreach
and engagement, New Mexico State University,
United States
Forum on New Approaches to Cooperation with
Latin America
Participants
Alejandro Hernández, provost, Instituto Tecnológico
Autónomo de México, Mexico
Lynn Anderson, dean of international education and
director, International Center, University of California,
San Diego, United States
Adriana Jaramillo, senior education specialist and
human development coordinator, The World Bank
Marcos Avilez, director, international programs,
Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso, Chile
Stephen H. Kolison Jr., associate vice president for
Academic, Faculty, and Global Programs, University
of Wisconsin System (Madison), United States
Brett Berquist, executive director of the Office of
Study Abroad, Michigan State University, United
States
José Lever, coordinator, University of Arizona Office
in Mexico, Mexico
Miguel Angel Betancur, director, relaciones internacionales e interinstitucionales, Universidad Pontificia
Bolivariana, Colombia
Luiz Valcov Loureiro, executive director, Fulbright
Commission, Brazil
Francisco Marmolejo, higher education coordinator,
World Bank, United States*
Hazel Blackmore, executive director, U.S.-Mexico
Commission for Educational & Cultural Exchange,
Mexico
Ann C. Mason, executive director, Fulbright Commission, Colombia
Thomas M. Buntru Wenzler, director, International
Programs Office, Universidad de Monterrey, Mexico
John Matel, U.S. Mission Brazil, U.S. Embassy Brazil,
United States
Susana Cabeza de Vaca, executive director, Fulbright
Commission, Ecuador
Ernesto Medina Sandino, rector, Universidad Americana, Nicaragua
Rafael Fernández de Castro, chairman, International Studies Department, Instituto Tecnologico
Autonomo de Mexico, Mexico
John Finn, coordinator, 100,000 Strong in the Americas, U.S. Department of State, United States
Rita Moriconi, regional educational advising coordinator, U.S. Department of State, South America–
Southern Cone (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay,
and Uruguay)
Norma Gonzalez, executive director, Fulbright
Commission, Argentina
Marisa Regitano d’Arce, director IR and vice dean,
ESALQ, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil
Susan Gronbeck-Tedesco, associate vice provost,
International Programs, University of Kansas, United
States
Edward Roekaert, rector, Universidad San Ignacio De
Loyola, Peru
Emily Stern, director of international programs,
Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Argentina
Jean-Xavier Guinard, associate vice provost and
executive director, University of California Education
Abroad Program, United States
Jeannette Velez, chancellor, international affairs,
Universidad del Rosario, Colombia
*At the time of the 2012 Latin America Forum, Marmolejo was executive director of the Consortium for North American Higher Education Collaboration (CONAHEC).
17
New Approaches to Cooperation with Latin America
Marlene Johnson, executive director and CEO,
NAFSA: Association of International Educators,
United States
Steve Vetter, president and CEO, Partners of the
Americas, United States
Soledad Zapiola, head, international office, Catholic
University of Argentina, UCA, Argentina
Samantha Katz, associate director, conference
academic programs, NAFSA: Association of International Educators, United States
NAFSA Staff
Victor Johnson, senior adviser, public policy, NAFSA:
Association of International Educators, United States
Margaret Heisel, director, NAFSA Center for Capacity
Building in Study Abroad, NAFSA: Association of
International Educators, United States
Betty Soppelsa, deputy executive director for conference planning, NAFSA: Association of International
Educators, United States
18