Over 1,000 university presidents from twenty-four Ibero-American countries have released a declaration calling for the creation of exchange programmes similar to the European Erasmus scheme, after a two-day meeting in Guadalajara, Mexico.
The second International Meeting of Universia Presidents, which was opened by Mexico’s President Felipe Calderón, was held to coincide with the bicentennial of Latin American independence. The university presidents announced plans to create a new scholarship programme that allows the movement of 15,000 students and 3,000 scholars.
The new scheme, proposed by Universia, the world’s largest network of Spanish and Portuguese-speaking universities, aims to make universities agents of social cohesion and facilitate more effective knowledge and technology transfers.
Universia was founded in 2000 by the Spanish University Rectors’ Board and was backed by financial support from the Santander group whose CEO Emilio Botín chairs the group. Since it was founded, the group has sought to develop collaboration among Ibero-American universities.
The group have had four main areas of development based on collaboration between universities using internet technology but now it is making a move into a more tangible transfer of knowledge based on greater student mobility.
Universia meets with its presidents every five years, with the last meeting in 2005 held at the University of Seville and next proposed for Brazil in 2015.