Latin America

NUMBER 56, SUMMER 2009

International Organizations for University Cooperation in Latin America and the Caribbean

Daniel A. López and Daniel C. López
Daniel A. López is Vice-President for Planning and Development at the Universidad de Los Lagos, Osorno, Chile, and ex-president of the Network of Latin American Regional Universities. E-mail: dlopez@ulagos.cl. Daniel C. López is assistant to the Executive Secretary of the Orion Association and member of the Open Lecture “Solidarity,” Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina. E-mail: dclopezg@hotmail.com.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, despite current conditions favoring university internationalization, coverage and development of organizations promoting international university cooperation remain limited. These issues involve effects of globalization, protocols, political and economic agreements, as well as the opportunity to improve academic quality through cooperation. These factors have not been yet reflected in terms of the consolidation of these institutions or their effects on university development in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Characteristics and Functions
Over 30 international organizations now function in Latin America and the Caribbean. They are defined as “groups of universities,” whose missions include “cooperation among their members” and improving “academic development through integrated action.” Fifty percent of the actually active organizations were created less than 30 years ago; in the past years, the numbers have increased. Nearly all of the organizations are based on 20 to 50 affiliated universities, and only a fraction have integrated over 100 members.

The total number of institutions affiliated with interuniversity organizations promoting international cooperation remains as yet low; and a considerable percentage of the affiliated are passive members. Moreover, many of these organizations are inactive, mainly due to financial and organizational problems.

Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Argentina, Chile, and Mexico possess the highest number of organizational affiliations. On the other hand, in more than a dozen small Caribbean countries no university entities are registered as members of international-cooperation organizations. The situation in the Caribbean evidently involves the relative development of the university system in each country.

Problems and Trends
International-cooperation agencies in Latin America and the Caribbean cope with several management and financial problems that limit their impact on university development. The increase in these types of organizations has not included differentiation of objectives, resulting in a large degree of overlapping and redundancy among them.

These agencies have encountered major management problems. The limited commitment of their members to materialize agreements relates to the practice that most universities do not plan international activities globally, except for student exchange programs. Even when a university creates a special unit for international affairs, the internal links with the rest of the institution are lax, resulting in limited academic involvement. Consequently, it becomes difficult to identify suitable mediators within each member to develop activities programmed by the international organizations. Relationships between a university and the international organization are personalized and restricted to officers, while the information flow toward academic levels remains deficient. Member-university representation is mostly formal within the international agency management structure, with limited authority and empowerment.

Within the international organizations, responsibilities are commonly delegated to only a few persons in delegated to only a few persons in executive and technical positions, which reveals the low level of proficiency and activity planning, as well as a lack of a performance-based organizational culture. Thus, many conferences and meetings—the main activities undertaken by international university organizations—do not advance concrete academic products.

The Higher Education market in Latin America and the Caribbean appears to operate predominantly by competing rather than cooperating and seeks to attain immediate benefits from the relationship. Profits from occasional opportunities are favored over well-planned projects. In the Latin-American context, obstacles to the functioning of international organizations are caused by the diverse education laws and regulations in each state and even within a country. The lack of protagonists among local actors affects the decision-making process over education and cultural policies for central bureaucratic offices.

A number of financial difficulties affecting international organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean have been cited in official documents, seminars, and publications. Financial budgets based principally on variable incomes originated mainly from specific projects and programs. Fixed incomes generated by membership quotas are limited and less predictable. A high competition exists for funds available from international agencies. International support tends to prioritize African and eastern European countries. Only restricted funding is available for international organizations and the member universities. The short-term benefits, principally monetary, are perceived as a basis for links between member universities and the operating organization.

Conclusion
To solve these difficulties and consolidate and improve levels of performance, Latin American and Caribbean international university organizations have adopted measures. The policy would call for working on projects, to take advantage of the increasing offer of specific grants. The organizations would function as networks. Each one would try to adopt clearly defined institutional profiles, courses of action, and advantages. Internal mechanisms need to be generated to compete for economic resources. The management group will require professionalization. Aspects such as graduate studies, research education, distance education, and information technology represent programs of high institutional profile. Bilateral, rather than multilateral relations, are preferred as a result of organizational difficulties of combining several partners in cooperation programs. Bilateral relations also facilitate specific and concrete short-run agreements.

The internationalization of Latin American and Caribbean universities as well as other aspects of their institutions are still limited. The conflicts must be solved to enable these institutions to take advantage of the increasing value of international affairs, as a result of globalization and the development of communication and information technologies.

[Online] Available: http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/soe/cihe/newsletter/Number56/p13_Lopez&Lopez.htm