Council of Rectors participates in university meeting in Panama

The meeting of university networks and Councils of Rectors of Latin America and the Caribbean was held at the University of Panama. Representing CRUCH was its executive director, María Teresa Marshall.

The Fifth Meeting of University Networks and Councils of Rectors of the region, convened by the UNESCO International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (IESALC), was held at the University of Panama. The Council of Rectors of Chilean Universities was represented by its Executive Director, María Teresa Marshall.

This meeting provided a space for reflection and dialogue on the trends, impact, and new challenges in higher education. Among the priorities of this discussion were internationalization and knowledge production and management.

At the opening of the event, Dr. Pedro Henríquez, director of IESALC, stated that Latin America and the Caribbean require a strong higher education system to effectively address the region's challenges, with a particular focus on greater progress in equity and inclusion, considering higher education as a public good and a human right. In his remarks, he called for this open debate, recognizing IESALC as a think tank for Latin America.

Among the speakers, it is worth highlighting the presentation by Dr. Ismail Serageldin, director of the Library of Alexandria, who referred to the meaning of the knowledge revolution and its implications for university systems, emphasizing the importance of universities for current societies and the challenges they must address in the field of research, teaching and learning, and community engagement.

The INFOACES project (Comprehensive Information System on Higher Education Institutions in Latin America for the Common Area of Higher Education with Europe), led by Dr. José Miguel Carot of the Polytechnic University of Valencia, was also presented. Dr. Carot emphasized how quality challenges increasingly demand more and more complex information for decision-making. He also highlighted the importance of information systems that enable academic cooperation, institutional development, and a vision for a common area of higher education in synergy with the European Union. The project's results will be hosted on IESALC and will provide a common set of indicators and an IT platform, offering new tools for management.

Another relevant presentation was the report on student mobility and the reflections presented by RELAIRES, an organization that is promoting the construction of a student mobility platform that actively involves the entire region and gathers the various existing options and networks.