Universities highlight the international value of Spanish in teaching and knowledge

Universities Spanish and Latin American countries have opted to promote their internationalization, strengthen ties and claim the potential and role of knowledge and teaching in Spanish as a common language.

The rector of the International University of Andalusia (southern Spain), José Ignacio García, assured this Wednesday that the Ibero-American Space of Knowledge “it is very much alive”as it has become clear these days “the willingness of universities to cooperate and build common spaces.”

García closed a seminar organized with the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE) with the title ‘Strategies and processes of internationalization in the Ibero-American Higher Education Area’held in La Rábida (Spain).

“From the intense work of these days, an important roadmap has emerged to strengthen ties, as well as numerous ideas to promote internationalization within – in Latin America and with Spain – and also abroad, claiming the potential and role of knowledge in that common framework language that is Spanish,” he said by way of conclusion.

In this regard, García stressed aspects of interest such as digital mobility, as a complement to face-to-face mobility, to promote a university experience that is more open to the world.

He also stressed the need for a balance between teaching in English and Spanish, without renouncing the value of the latter as an attractive option for mobility, or the need to move towards a common framework for the recognition of qualifications, in the image of the European Higher Education Area, although adapted to the particularities of Latin America.

Carlos Natarén, rector of the University of Chiapas (Mexico), presented the experience of academic confluence developed through the Consortium of Mexican Universities (CUMEX), of which he is vice president. “Education, to be superior, must be international”he added.

Representatives from universities in Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and, most notably, Mexico, as well as representatives from Spanish institutions, participated in this three-day seminar.