IESALC: Mobility in Latin America and the Caribbean is still a challenge

A recent study carried out by the UNESCO International Institute on Higher Education for Latin America and the Caribbean IESALC, and presented at the VI Congreso de las Américas sobre Educación Superior CAEI (VI Congress of the Americas on International Education) revealed the truth about student mobility in Latin America. “At least half of the foreign students come from the same region: Argentina receives 75.668 in its institutions of higher education; Mexico, 25.125; and Brasil 19.996. With an important difference, Dominican Republic is next with 9.607 foreign students, Ecuador with 6.942 and Chile with 4.708, follow”, said Francesc Pedró, IESALC Director, to the thousand attendees that converged on October, 25, 2019, at Bogotá, Colombia.

For the IESALC, what kindles this type of research is the need to contribute to the development of the region’s higher education, starting from starting from the reflection and analysis of the evidences. Within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the 2030 Agenda, and of the results of the III Regional Conference on Higher Education (CRES 2018), the UNESCO Institute established its action strategies for the biennium 2020-2021: generate and disseminate evidences for the improvement of policies at a regional, national and institutional level; contribute with the strengthening of the capacities of decision-makers and researchers; offer technical assistance to countries and networks of higher education institutions, and advocate for the right to higher education as a public asset.

Towards the end of the Conference a plenary session with the title of Multilateral Organisms: Sinergies and Development in the Americas, was held. The IESALC highlighted the role that universities have as organisms to emulate because of their sustainability, and drew the audiences’ attention to the role higher education has in the region: “The political disposition towards regional integration must be real, because today our speech differs from what is practiced, and Latin America is divided”, said the Institute’s Director. Jesús Giacoman, from Human Development, Education and Employability of the OAS; Ángel Martín, regional director of the Ibero-american States Organization for Education, Science and Culture; and Jean Gaudemar from AUF Moyen-Orient, accompanied him during this session.