International academic cooperation

Erasmus+ is a European Union project that offers, through a scholarship fund, international mobility opportunities for students and administrative or academic staff of universities to carry out teaching functions or to train in higher education institutions outside Europe. It also offers the same opportunities for staff and students from countries beyond Europe to visit participating universities in the European Union. 

Student mobility consists of a period of study at a university in a partner country, a period of practical training in the country, or a combination of both.   

Staff mobility includes teaching periods for teaching staff at universities in partner countries, or periods of professional training for administrative staff.  A period at a partner university may combine teaching and training activities.

Each individual university requests the placements, which are then offered to its university community through a specific call for applications.

2199 higher education institutions participate in the Erasmus initiative in 31 countries.

The Consortium for North American Higher Education Collaboration (CONAHEC) is a non-profit network of more than 180 institutions of higher education in Canada, the United States and Mexico, as well as a select group of institutions from other parts of the world.

CONAHEC seeks to advance the consolidation of the North American higher education community and its relationship with international partners by promoting collaboration and cooperation among its members and affiliates and by providing a variety of forums where representatives of institutions can meet, interact and develop their collaborative and cooperative projects. 

Activities

• Helps its members find partners for international initiatives and acts as a liaison between its members.
• Organizes higher education conferences.
• Manages efficient mobility and academic exchange programs.
• Collaborates with the Compostela Group of Universities in the exchange program for administrative personnel (STELLA).
• Assists its members in evaluating international programs.
• Promotes its members and their programs at international conferences and events.
• Makes international higher education presentations at conferences and events.
• Provides customized electronic information on collaboration and funding opportunities.
• Offers customized professional development workshops and seminars.
• Promotes access to higher education for underrepresented groups.
• Provides support for information gathering, international research and conference promotion.
• Supports the North American Student Organization (SONA).

The Compostela Group of Universities (CGU) is an international network of Higher Education to which more than 60 universities around the world belong, making it one of the largest in Europe.

The objective of the Compostela Group of Universities is to promote collaboration and dialogue in all areas of Higher Education, convinced that diversity and multiculturalism are key elements of the profile of universities in the 21st century.

CGU offers the mobility program for service personnel, Stella for Staff, which provides the possibility of professional and intercontinental mobility for these employees of the partner universities. This provides the opportunity for administrative or academic staff to learn how to work in the different departments of the universities participating in the program and to live a multicultural experience through temporary stays in other higher education institutions of the network.

Every year, CGU launches a call for scholarships, which is intended only for academic or administrative staff so that they can carry out professional internships.

The Latin American Academic Exchange Program, known by its acronym PILA, promotes the exchange of undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate students, as well as academics, researchers and administrative personnel from partner universities and higher education institutions. It is the result of an agreement signed between the National Interuniversity Council of Argentina (CIN), the Colombian Association of Universities (ASCUN) and the National Association of Universities and Institutions of Higher Education of Mexico (ANUIES).

Its purpose is to enrich their academic, professional and comprehensive training, as well as to promote the internationalization of higher education and strengthen cooperation ties between Colombia, Mexico and Argentina.

Through this program, students can take a semester of their degree at a foreign university, with the possibility of having the subjects they have passed recognized at their university of origin.

Similarly, PILA supports teachers (both professors and assistants), researchers and administrative staff through funding. This promotes inter-institutional cooperation actions, the exchange of teachers and researchers and the training of administrative staff in the internationalization activities of the institutions.