CRUCH participates in Conference on Alfa Puentes project in Colombia

10/12/2013
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The Council of Rectors attended the Second Bi-regional Conference of University Associations: A Euro-Latin American Alliance for Innovative, Responsive and Sustainable Universities, in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia.

More than 30 university associations and rectors from Latin America and Europe met – between December 2 and 4 – in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, to share the results of the ALFA PUENTES project. The meeting offered a valuable opportunity for university leadership and for reflecting on institutional development and higher education systems.

The topics of the debate revolved around four main axes: decision-making based on data and evidence (TRESAL Survey), the new challenges of quality assurance systems, responses to emerging scenarios related to knowledge and learning in societies of today and tomorrow, and finally internationalization in higher education.

The ALFA Bridges project (2011–2014), promoted by the European University Association, the Observatory of Europe-Latin America Relations, and the Colombian Association of Universities, has explored trends in the development of higher education in Latin America and Europe, as well as the ongoing processes of change in the modernization and internationalization of higher education. Organized across three subregions of Latin America—Mercosur, the Andean region, and Mesoamerica—the project has focused on three key components: quality assurance, curriculum harmonization, and student and faculty mobility. This was complemented by a cross-sectional study called TRESAL, which gathered information and evidence on these changing trends.

Several conclusions emerge from this fruitful and ongoing Euro-Latin American university encounter; links have been generated, worlds have been brought closer together, and it is especially clear that "the future of society and economies will not depend solely on a few high-level institutions, but on the solidity, the willingness to react to new demands and trends, and the global connectivity of higher education systems.".