CREATING A GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT IN OUR UNIVERSITIES

CREATING A GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT IN OUR UNIVERSITIES
Remarks by The Honorable Sr. D. Ramón Gil-Casares, Ambassador of Spain in the United States
of America during HACU’s 10th International Conference, February 27-March 1, 2013 in San
Antonio, Texas
I would like to thank HACU and its president, Antonio Flores, for providing me
with this opportunity to share with you a few ideas on the key topic of fostering global
environments in the universities.
Throughout the past few decades, we have witnessed a gradual and continuous change in
our old way of conceiving education. As such, the significant increase in academic
mobility, the search for common ground in curriculum design material and the
recognition of international degrees, are some of the elements that make up this new
reality in an age of global information and communication.
The University has been a key player in the implementation of these internationalization
policies. In fact, over four million students studied abroad in 2012 by means of mobility
programs.
In the European Union the inception of the Erasmus program in 1987 undeniably
contributed to the Europeanization of Higher Education, thanks to academic mobility.
However, the University did not receive a decisive impetus until 1999 with the Bologna
Declaration, signed by 29 European states, which defines the European Higher
Education Area. This Area, strangely enough, has no goal of homogenizing its education
systems. Rather, it aims at creating an open Europe in which there are no barriers to
academic mobility.
My country has an extensive network of universities composed of 70 institutions
distributed throughout more than 230 campuses, of which 50 make up the public
network. More and more of these universities are also adding online courses of study.
Spain is one of the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development)
countries that have raised the annual price of Institutions of Higher Education per student
most, increasing by 45% in the past decade, although it still maintains lower spending.
Despite this fact, our universities still do not boast the positions we would desire in
international ranking. The majority has already adapted to the new model
In this common European space, and in terms of mobility, the Erasmus program is the
most important in Spain. Within it, about 33,000 students, mainly undergraduates, studied
outside of Spain last semester. A total of nearly 37,000 Spanish students studied outside
of Spain in the entire year 2012.
However, and in spite of this good figure, the number of foreign students that enter Spain
is comparatively larger and accounts for about 5% of total international mobility.
Regarding mobility between Spain and the United States, the trend could not be more
satisfying. Spain is the third largest recipient of university students from the US, with
more than 25,000 youth studying in our country every year. By the same token, nearly
5,000 Spanish youth attend American universities.
I would also like to highlight other programs that were designed specifically to facilitate
the relationships between the New and Old World:
-
-
The ATLANTIS program, for example, was conceived as a cooperative education
initiative between the European Union and the United States in order to improve
relations through high quality projects based on double and/or joint degrees and
mobility scholarship programs.
The Fulbright program is known to all
The Spanish Ministry of Education’s North American Language and Cultural
Assistants Program allows nearly 2,000 U.S. university students to go to Spain
yearly to collaborate with language professors in their classrooms
The OCEANS program furthers cooperation between the European Union, the
U.S. and other industrialized countries
ALFA program also emerged. It is a program of cooperation between EU Higher
Education Institutions and Latin American counterparts.
I also want to underscore the extent to which HACU, through its agreements with a group
of Spanish universities, has played a key role building bridges between both sides of the
Atlantic and cementing a strong relationship on the basis of a shared cultural and
educative Hispanic heritage.
Even though we are in North America, Latin America also deserves special attention.
Nos acercamos poco a poco a los 500 millones de hispanohablantes, incluidos también
los que hablan nuestro idioma como lengua extranjera. El Espacio Iberoamericano del
Conocimiento, iniciativa de las Cumbres Iberoamericanas de Jefes de Estado y de
Gobierno, ha propiciado la coordinación de los máximos responsables en educación
superior en definir líneas comunes para buscar la excelencia de los sistemas educativos
nacionales y facilitar la movilidad, dando frutos como el Programa Pablo Neruda, para
programas de postgrado.
El Espacio Común de Educación Superior (ALCUE) también ha dado pasos en la
constitución de redes de cooperación entre América Latina, Caribe y la Unión Europea, a
través de su propio espacio virtual.
La fundación española del sector público estatal Universidad.es trabaja también desde
2008 por mejorar la visibilidad y promocionar el sistema universitario español en el
mundo y es portal de numerosos programas transnacionales como Ciencia sin fronteras,
con Brasil.
Es preciso seguir estrechando lazos a ambos lados del Atlántico y el camino es todavía
largo. Sería conveniente incrementar los intercambios académicos en la línea de un
Erasmus transatlántico y, para ello, habría que seguir también trabajando en la
homologación de los distintos sistemas universitarios.
Para concluir, quisiera hacer unas breves consideraciones:
En primer lugar, una reflexión seria sobre la internacionalización de nuestros campus no
se puede basar solamente en parámetros tradicionales. La movilidad, la adecuación de
nuestros recursos a la diversidad, las políticas en lenguas extranjeras, la adaptación de los
currículos nacionales o conjuntos y los proyectos de investigación son sin duda
indicadores de éxito.
La revolución digital ha hecho necesario abordar una nueva alfabetización, pero también
ha conseguido facilitar enormemente el acceso a la información y ha propiciado una
cultura de participación a través de las redes sociales. La digitalización de los procesos
educativos, en especial de la planificación de las asignaturas y los materiales docentes
asociados, ha permitido también que las universidades abracen mayoritariamente
proyectos multinacionales.
El reto digital impulsa por otra parte a seguir potenciando nuevas iniciativas que vienen
probándose eficaces y sostenibles desde una perspectiva económica, como los programas
híbridos, combinando trabajo presencial y en línea entre instituciones o países, en campos
concretos de trabajo, o los programas que incentivan y permiten el acceso a contenidos
internacionales. Los campus virtuales son desde hace tiempo una realidad.
Por último, creo necesario insistir en que el proceso de internacionalización de las
universidades debe ser asumido y compartido por todos los colectivos, especialmente los
estudiantes que tienen un protagonismo innegable en dicho proceso, como agentes y
como beneficiarios. Por ello, sus iniciativas, su experiencia y su valoración son aspectos
clave para plantearnos hacia dónde queremos avanzar.
Muchas gracias.