The 14th North American Higher Education Conference was held this past weekend in Puebla, Mexico. According to the conference website, the purpose and goals of the conference was as follows:
"The conference will focus on how higher education institutions can better focus their strengths and resources and improve their international collaboration in order to empower our societies to be prepared for future challenges. While higher education institutions have been at the cutting edge of many technological developments, and have served as spaces for our communities to grow and develop, the road ahead is full of challenges if we are to create fairer, more equitable and more prosperous communities which together are prepared for anything the future holds. International collaboration and the internationalization of higher education institutions themselves are increasingly vital for the development of our regions."
The conference hosted administrations from over 400 universities from the United States, Mexico, Europe, Asia and Africa. Within the discussions of the conference, there seemed to be an emphasis placed on the difficulties surrounding the offering of international studies to students. The administrators discussed the barriers such as the challenging environment, the budget cuts, the continued lack of integration in Higher Education and specifically the security concerns at the US/Mexico border.
The intense frustration of Mexico's secretary of Higher Education was identified as he explained that even though Mexico is the US's #1 trading partner that they are down on the list in the number of Mexican students participating in US exchange programs and student mobility programs. He was frustrated that several of the US exchange programs were cancelled throughout Mexico "after two Mexican graduate students were killed in a drug-related shootout outside the private Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Studies." His frustration was relating to the fact that "all" programs were cancelled throughout Mexico even though the violence was in a certain region of the country. Another administrator spoke on the fact that an English-language program associated with the US Embassy had committed help to train their English teachers but after some uprising in a town about 75 miles away, the US pulled out of the project.
As I read the article and visited the website for the conference itself, I was excited to see that there are truly conference being held internationally to collaborate resources, ideas, concerns, and resources. This particular conference was the 14th annual conference which also struck me as odd. It seems that such conference should have been taking place for a much longer time period. But, the fact that they are happening is definitely encouraging. In 1999, Europeans created the “Bologna Process” with the purpose of making academic degree standards and quality assurance standards more compatible throughout Europe. I believe that as international studies expand, there becomes more of a need for the academic standards to be more comparable internationally. It will take a lot of work to make this collaboration happen but I do believe that it is a process that should be considered now.
As far as the US/Mexico relations, I understand the frustrations of the Mexican Higher Education representatives. Part of the issue that I see is that the US may not be educated enough about the different areas of Mexico. The areas of violence, the areas to avoid and the areas of peace need to be identified and the safe routes to travel need to be studied. News of violence should be identified and proper precautions taken. I, however, if asked to travel to Mexico would likely decline due to the continued news of violence and drugs and due to the fact that I am the mother of three kids. I believe that any individuals, whether students or teachers, need to be aware of the surrounding problems so that they can personally make the decisions they are comfortable with. Also, the issue of a universities legal liability surrounding the travel of exchange students must be analyzed. Obviously, if the university cannot take on the such a legal responsibility, then the Mexican educational institutions are going to have to understand and respect the legal constraints. The communication needs to stay open but realistic.
The article made me realize that even though we are moving forward with international education and globalization that “we” have continued restraints to adapt to. Collectively, the issues have to be identified and handled. Safety should be a major concern but economics have to be considered and integration of the international education systems has to be addressed.
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