by Ned D. Strong, Executive Director, LASPAU
Current political and economic conditions in the Western Hemisphere will have a great influence on the future role of international education. It is clear that the Latin America and Caribbean of today are not the ones we knew three years ago. Volatility has increased across the region. National governments and multilateral banks, the principal sources of new investments in education, have diverted their resources toward the resolution of financial crises and debt management and away from social programs.
These topics were the center of discussion at the most recent meeting of the LASPAU Board of Trustees. In the face of these challenges, the Trustees began to define a reinvigorated role for international educational exchanges, particularly those that build human resource capacity to:
- Lead and reform basic education
- Develop technological innovations
- Pave the way for free trade
- Professionalize civic and governmental institutions
- Supply a growing market in telecommunications
- Address environmental concerns
Exchange Programs to Address Regional Challenges
Identifying, understanding, and resolving global challenges are among the most important roles of world-class universities. Exchange programs sponsored by national or multinational organizations are an essential resource for universities in the United States and elsewhere as they seek to address current needs in Latin America and the Caribbean. Host universities derive numerous advantages from exchanges, including such less-apparent benefits as the establishment of long-term scientific relationships and the opportunity to address the implications of demographic changes.
Demographic studies show that the fastest growing minority group in the United States—and increasingly one of the most influential—has roots in Latin America and the Caribbean. This demographic change has led to a growing cultural affinity with the region, creating new interest in academic exchanges within the Americas. An increased cultural and linguistic affinity with the region will also surely result in a larger number of universities that are interested in seeking ways to address the concerns facing Latin America and the Caribbean.
Increasing the number of Latin American and Caribbean exchange students at U.S. universities provides an opportunity for U.S. students of Latin American and Caribbean origin to connect with their roots through friendships and cooperative projects. International students from countries outside the Western Hemisphere also expand their horizons through direct contact with fellow students from Latin America and the Caribbean. These relationships often lead to long-term collaborations that span continents. Initiatives such as the Fulbright Faculty Development Program sponsor professionals with strong ties to their home institutions, providing opportunities for home and host universities to collaborate on projects with direct and lasting results.
Such efforts are especially beneficial in science and engineering, two fields that receive strong financial support from universities, especially in the United States. But merely training Latin American and Caribbean scientists is not as attractive to universities as creating ongoing relationships between home and host institutions that could result in the joint development of intellectual property and patents. Within the scientific community, multilateral and transborder issues such as chemical safety would profit greatly from the cooperative research efforts that result from graduate-level exchanges, particularly at the Ph.D. level.
LASPAU’s Trustees concluded that academic exchanges have great potential to provide advanced training for individuals in the region’s areas of need. As noted above, there are ample opportunities to accrue economic, scientific, and social benefits for all parties.
Where Does LASPAU Come In?
Given the constraints across the hemisphere in financing education, LASPAU will seek to lead international academic exchange in new directions, becoming a stronger advocate in the areas of unfulfilled need.
Education reform The LASPAU-administered Fulbright Faculty Development Program and its predecessor sponsored by USAID have enabled nearly 10,000 faculty members to obtain advanced degrees since 1964. While these alumni have distinguished themselves through teaching and research in their fields, many are also leaders in higher education institution reform, curriculum revision, the establishment of new graduate programs, and other innovations in their home countries.
Other efforts such as Mejoramiento de la Calidad y Equidad de la Educación Superior (MECESUP), a collaborative effort of the World Bank and the government of Chile, are designed to improve the quality of higher education in specific countries. A 2000 agreement between MECESUP and the Fulbright Program provides a mechanism for ensuring that an increased number of Chilean professors obtain doctoral degrees.
Universities across the region are an essential component of the effort to reform K-12 education. Exchange programs can play a critical role in strengthening institutions that train educators. LASPAU’s current plans include a series of new programs to support education reform at the primary and secondary levels.
Technological innovations In the late 1980s, LASPAU noted that despite a growing community of Latin American and Caribbean scholars using electronic communications, a number of impediments hindered the widespread use of available technologies in the region. To address the need for an expanded telecommunications infrastructure and increased scholarly content in languages other than English, LASPAU sought funding from IBM in 1990 to establish the LASPAU Network Project. The project stimulated the creation of some of the earliest electronic academic networks in Latin America and the Caribbean.
A complementary program, funded in 1991 through grants from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, supported the development of electronic communications systems at Latin American universities and research institutions. The program trained trainers in the use of communications technology for academic and research programs. In all, 4,000 individuals from over 80 institutions received information technology training through LASPAU.
Today, LASPAU continues to address technology needs in the region through seminars on the strategic use of information technology and through the administration of programs aimed at promoting technological expertise in specific countries. The Instituto Colombiano para el Desarrollo de la Ciencia y la Tecnología “Francisco José de Caldas” (COLCIENCIAS) of Colombia and the Fundación para la Ciencia y la Tecnología (FUNDACYT) of Ecuador support long-term programs that have enabled hundreds of grantees to pursue graduate studies abroad in science or technology.
LASPAU’s immediate plans include expanding relationships with science and technology organizations throughout the region in order to stimulate new exchange programs. Of particular interest are initiatives at the doctoral level that will provide the first step in building long-term relationships among researchers across borders as described above.
Free trade As the economic borders of the Americas fall away, the building blocks of free trade will be found in the quality of the education of leaders in all disciplines and industries. Exchange program grantees are returning to their home countries with advanced expertise in many fields, including energy management, sustainable development, and international economics. Many of these individuals find themselves at the forefront of policymaking in areas critical to the financial and social welfare of their nations.
Programs administered by LASPAU are expanding the skills and knowledge of a growing cadre of internationally trained business leaders. These include not only faculty and administrators of the region’s highest-caliber business schools but also program grantees who return home to work in the private sector. Many of these grantees are sponsored through collaborative arrangements between the Fulbright Program and industrial consortiums such as the Federação das Indústrias no Estado de Minas Gerais–Instituto Euvaldo Lodi (FIEMG-IEL) of Brazil. In 1999, the Minas Gerais Program began training high-level professionals in fields that included industrial design, international trade, intellectual property law, and public policy.
As the Organization of American States (OAS) has recently articulated, more must be done in this area. Educational exchanges are not highly visible in the free trade discussion. Leaders and employees of small- and medium-sized enterprises are one example of a constituency that is not prepared for the consequences of free trade and could benefit from academic exchanges.
Civic and governmental institutions Leaders of nongovernmental organizations and grassroots community groups in the region have benefited greatly from international exchanges. Thanks to the generous support of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, a new generation of leaders for these important sectors is being trained through graduate fellowships and specialized non-degree programs.
LASPAU also contributed to the development of a new relationship between Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and the Tecnológico de Monterrey to establish a graduate program in public policy at the Tec. Additionally, LASPAU has established a formal relationship with the nongovernmental organization Meridiano in Paraguay to develop initiatives that will build long-term institutional capacity in the public sector.
LASPAU will continue to work with institutions across the hemisphere to expand the capacity of Latin American and Caribbean universities to offer programs in disciplines that support public policy.
Telecommunications 500 individuals from Latin America and the Caribbean have received grants administered by LASPAU to obtain graduate degrees in the telecommunications field. Nondegree activities also play an important role in this area. In 1998, Turner Learning, the educational wing of Turner Broadcasting System, began a joint venture with the Fundação Roberto Marinho and other Brazilian organizations to facilitate cooperative development in communications technology. As a component of the project, Turner created the Fulbright–Turner Program, which provides training for master’s candidates who will contribute to the development of educational television in Brazil. Each grantee spends a year in the United States, including six months of study at a U.S. university and an equal amount of training at Turner Learning in Atlanta, Georgia.
Projected investments by the Inter-American Development Bank indicate that new resouces are likely to be available to fortify telecommunications in the next few years.
Environmental concerns LASPAU has long been a leader in the development of initiatives to address environmental concerns in the region. The Fulbright Program and the OAS are in the forefront of sponsorship of exchange programs in this area. The Fulbright Caribbean and Central American Ecology and Amazon Basin Scholarship programs were consolidated in 2001 into a hemisphere-wide program, the Fulbright–OAS Ecology Initiative. Through the joint support of the Fulbright Program and the OAS, the initiative expanded the number of grants available annually from 12 to 24, an increase of 100%.
In 2002, LASPAU and InterGen, a Shell-Bechtel consortium and leader in the construction of environmentally friendly power plants throughout the world, established the Border Ozone Reduction and Air Quality Improvement Program. This program taps the rich alumni base of LASPAU to conduct research aimed at reducing pollutants in the Mexicali area.
Educational exchanges will continue to play a critical role in building the human infrastructure needed to address the most pressing environmental issues facing the Americas. New partnerships with business and industry will be crucial to achieving this goal.
Helping to Shape the Future
The challenges facing Latin America and the Caribbean represent tremendous opportunities for academic exchange organizations to assist with building human resource capacity. As LASPAU approaches its 40th anniversary, the Trustees and staff remain committed to the organization’s mission of expanding the ability of individuals, institutions, and societies to achieve their highest potential through education.
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