Latin American satellite campuses grow despite risks

Subject The internationalisation of higher education in Latin America. Significance Several US universities are in the process of opening, or have announced plans for, campuses in Latin America. This is part of a broader global trend in higher education. However, the process of opening a satellite campus is fraught with risks and there are a number of other ways for universities to advance an international agenda. Impacts Staffing satellite campuses will be a key challenge for US universities. Academically strong students will opt for top Latin American universities rather than looking further afield. Latin American universities will offer study abroad opportunities, potentially as part of dual award arrangements.

2017 ◽  
pp. 26-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcelo Knobel ◽  
Andrés Bernasconi

The higher education sector in Latin America has fallen short of its promise of spearheading cultural, social, and economic progress for the region. As higher education changes to meet the challenges on the new century, the few flagship universities of Latin America are called upon to lead. However, these universities face both internal and external obstacles that hinder their full modernization, threatening their leadership.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esteban Vázquez Cano ◽  
M.ª Luisa Sevillano-García

This study conducted a general and comparative analysis of how university students use mobile digital devices for educational purposes in various places and spaces both inside and outside university facilities in Spain and Latin America. It analyses a total sample of 886 students (442 Spanish and 444 Latin American) corresponding to five Spanish and five Latin American universities. The research methodology was based on factorial analysis and comparison between groups with parametric and nonparametric tests. The results show that educational use of mobile digital devices in the Hispanic world concentrates on the use of smartphones and tablets inside university facilities; primarily in college cafeterias, corridors, classrooms and libraries. Spanish and Latin American students used tablets in and out of University facilities for storing and retrieving information, and smartphones for sharing educational information and content. 


2016 ◽  
pp. 7-9
Author(s):  
Ana García De Fanelli

The first U-Multirank launched in 2014, a multi-dimensional and user-driven approach to international ranking in higher education, included only a few Latin American universities. I address whether more Latin American universities will be able to participate in this interesting initiative in the near future. I first describe similar projects in Latin America and then discuss whether some of the data the U-Multirank requests in the institutional questionnaires can feasibly be collected from LA universities. 


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 439-451
Author(s):  
Rocio Serrano ◽  
Washington Macias ◽  
Katia Rodriguez ◽  
María Isabel Amor

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop and validate a questionnaire to assess the expectations of university teachers about the importance of generic competences in Higher Education Institutions of Ecuador (E-DUC, acronym in Spanish), based on the competences typology from the Tuning Latin America Project. Design/methodology/approach A questionnaire with Likert scales was administered to 458 university teachers from seven universities in Ecuador. Exploratory and confirmatory analyzes have been carried out to validate the theoretical model. Findings After the validation process, four groups of generic competences were confirmed and the measurement model showed high levels of reliability, as well as content and construct validity. Research limitations/implications Since tuning project has an international scope, the research could be replicated in other Latin American countries for comparability purposes regarding teachers’ perceived importance of generic competences in teaching activity. In addition, further research can relate teachers’ expectations with teaching performance and other constructs, based on a broad theoretical framework. Practical implications These technical characteristics allow the use of E-DUC as an instrument to measure the expectations of teachers on the general competences that are worked on in higher education in Ecuador. Data about these perceptions are useful for the design of teachers’ training programs, curriculum reforms and other higher education policies. Originality/value It is the first research carried out in Ecuador and Latin America in order to validate a scale for measuring the expectations of teachers about the importance of the generic competences proposed in the Tuning Latin America Project.


Author(s):  
Andres Bernasconi

Postindependence Latin American universities developed during the 19th and most of the 20th century largely under the normative influence of a Latin American idea of the university institution. In the last few decades, factors both related to the development of higher education and external to it have combined to challenge the clout of that model. As a result, notwithstanding the persistence of elements of the old paradigm, the model of the Latin American university is now related chiefly to US research universities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 5378
Author(s):  
Alfonso Unceta ◽  
Igone Guerra ◽  
Xabier Barandiaran

In the last two decades, social innovation (SI) and social entrepreneurship (SE) have gained relevance and interest within the framework of academia at international level. Higher education institutions (HEIs) are key players in promoting innovation and social entrepreneurship initiatives that respond to multifaceted challenges. They support strategies on the basis of the strengthening of participation, collaboration, and cooperation with society and its local communities. However, the approach of Latin American universities to SI and SE has been very uneven in the way they have understood them, integrated them into academic programmes, and transferred knowledge to society. On the basis of the experience of the Students4Change project, we sought to understand the role of Latin American HEIs in promoting social innovations by analysing the experiences of 10 participating universities to formalise a pedagogical programme on SI and SE in their institutions. The results suggest that there is still a need to formalise an academic syllabus that is specifically designed to promote social innovations and to train universities in this endeavour. This paper contributes to the identification of the main levers of change, strengths, and challenges that Latin American universities face to institutionalise SI and SE in their contexts.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 599-614
Author(s):  
José-Santiago Fernández-Vázquez

Purpose This paper aims to explore the current state of website environmental communications in Latin American universities through a benchmarking operational tool. The study considers how these universities communicate their environmental policies as an act of corporate social responsibility and to improve their public image. Design/methodology/approach A sample of 80 top-ranked Latin American universities was considered. Environmental websites were evaluated in terms of information quality, multimodal design and stakeholder engagement. The research method follows the theoretical foundations of critical discourse analysis, multimodal studies and ecolinguistics. Findings A total of 59% of the universities have opened environmental websites. However, many of them have poor content and interactivity. Latin American universities obtain low scores in several objective criteria which measure the efficiency of website environmental communications. Practical implications The findings can help university administrators to improve the quality and effectiveness of online environmental communications. Some practical recommendations are given and examples of good practice can be emulated. Originality/value To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study that analyses the situation of website environmental communications in a large sample of Latin American universities. The development of an operational benchmarking tool invites further comparative studies, which may contribute to a wider picture of environmental communications.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Cordova ◽  
Dinorá Eliete Floriani ◽  
Maria Alejandra Gonzalez-Perez ◽  
Michel Hermans ◽  
Santiago Mingo ◽  
...  

PurposeThis paper aims to provide insights into the internationalization strategic responses to the COVID-19 pandemic by higher education institutions (HEIs) in Latin America.Design/methodology/approachThis study is based on information from eight leading Latin American private universities. The data were obtained from official sources such as institutional communications and university administrators.FindingsThe authors identify two main issues that HEIs should consider while responding to the pandemic. First, greater attention and resource allocation to the universities' main local stakeholders can affect traditional internationalization activities. Second, a focus on revitalizing foreign partnerships and strengthening “virtual internationalization” can help maintain and eventually increase international presence.Research limitations/implicationsWhile this study analyses how these Latin American HEIs responded during the initial stages of the COVID-19 outbreak, it is important to conduct follow-up studies to shed light on how HEIs are adapting to the COVID-19 crisis as it continues to unfold.Originality/valueThis study is based on unique information gathered from leading private, not-for-profit HEIs in Latin America, which, contrary to state-owned HEIs or other private institutions in developed economies, have exhibited different means and conditions to respond to the coronavirus outbreak. Finally, the authors contribute to the literature on the internationalization of HEIs by discussing the role of a significant disruptive event on the internationalization of higher education and, particularly, business schools.


2019 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 829-854 ◽  
Author(s):  
Álvaro Morcillo Laiz

AbstractIf Latin America's public universities are considered part of the state, then it seems plausible to characterise them as similar to the state, i.e. as clientelistic. However, this plausible hypothesis has never been examined by the literature on twentieth-century Mexican social sciences. Just like clientelism, science patrons such as US philanthropic foundations have similarly been neglected. In this article I argue that, as an alternative to what the Rockefeller Foundation perceived as clientelism and amateurism at Latin American universities, it claimed to patronise liberal scholarship, practised according to formal rational criteria. While foundations have been frequently considered part of a US imperialistic drive towards cultural hegemony in Latin America, they were not unitary actors and frequently failed to predict the actual impact of their grants. In Mexico in the 1940s, the Rockefeller Foundation boosted the humanities, but missed the opportunity to support a local take on social science teaching and research.


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