UNAM Chicago
In the past five years, UNAM has formalized over 400 agreements with higher education institutions from all regions of the world. This has enabled three thousand of our students and eleven thousand academics to benefit from experiences in various countries, stated our Rector Leonardo Lomelí Vanegas.
During this same period, fifteen hundred foreign students and seventy-six hundred academic colleagues were received, whose presence on our campuses demonstrates the growing relevance of our exchanges, added the Rector as he inaugurated UNAM´s 2024 International Week.
The Rector recalled that since 1910, the National University has promoted internationalization, which broadens knowledge and learning, encourages intercultural understanding, and opens new avenues for reciprocity and innovation. He also explained that the main objective of the event was to consolidate the University Network of Internationalization Representatives (RURI) – created in 2017 – and composed of representatives from each university entity tasked with this mission. They serve as the link with the areas responsible for projecting UNAM’s internationalization, act as the official spokesperson, and support the actions and projects of the Institutional Development Plan.
He highlighted that the University has made progress in consolidating policies, programs, and activities that enable synergy among the different entities, the twelve foreign campuses of this institution, and the entire world.
“Their commitment and tireless work have been essential in creating this space for dialogue and learning, which strengthens our mission of expanding the frontiers of public higher education. Thanks to their vision and dedication, we continue to move towards a more plural, inclusive, and interconnected University,” emphasized the Rector.
Previously, the Secretary of Institutional Development, Tamara Martínez Ruíz, emphasized that internationalization plays an essential and significant role in universities worldwide, which has intensified rapidly alongside all globalization processes. Among other things, it opens windows to universal knowledge.
The mobility of higher education students, she added, influences their education by incorporating a multicultural, global, and technical international perspective into their studies; it enriches teaching and learning processes by increasing the diversity of students and ways of viewing the world in university classrooms.
Furthermore, it becomes relevant for the development of human capital through the creation of research networks and academic exchange, which broaden and democratize knowledge, benefiting university communities and the labor and productive sectors of nations.
At his turn, the Vice provost for International Relations, William Lee Alardín, explained that the International Week UNAM 2024 aims for RURI members to analyze problems and proposals to improve internationalization, including a varied program of activities, such as sharing experiences and best practices with colleagues from other institutions.
The strategy has many components: student and academic mobility, signing agreements and conventions, but also seeking local, regional, and global solutions to the problems faced by universities, leveraging diverse perspectives and the knowledge of other people and institutions, said the university official. “We continuously seek to broaden the physical and mental horizons of our student community, which is the raison d’être of the University,” he emphasized.