Presentation of ANECA's technical training and innovation programming in AECID's Intercoonecta Plan

In an academic and relaxed atmosphere took place on Thursday, November 17, at ANECA's headquarters in Madrid, the presentation ceremony of ANECA's Programming in the Intercoonecta plan "LAB Quality that unites us", with authorities, managers and representatives of Higher Education Institutions (HEI) from different countries of the Latin America and Caribbean Region. The session began with a speech by Joan Subirats Humet, Minister of Universities of the Spanish Government, together with Mercedes Siles Molina, Director of the National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation (ANECA) and Antón Leis García, Director of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID). The event was broadcast in its entirety by the television channel ANECAtv on YouTube. Francesc Pedró i García, director of the International Institute for Higher Education (UNESCO IESALC), ANECA's partner in the Intercoonecta project, also participated in the event.

The event was also attended by the Secretary General of Universities of the Government of Spain, the Ambassador of Colombia in Spain, the rector of the Autonomous University of Madrid, the Director of the Ibero-American Knowledge Space of the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB); the director of the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture (OEI); the support unit of the Directorate of Cooperation with Latin America and the Caribbean; representatives of Embassies; representatives of the Ibero-American System for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (SIACES); the Ministry of Education and Culture of Uruguay; national agencies for quality assessment and accreditation of the higher education system in different countries, including Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Spain, Panama, Peru, Uruguay; Spanish universities, as well as other institutions.

The first intervention was made by Joan Subirats Humet, Minister of Universities, who emphasized the trust that will be generated in the institutions participating in this ANECA Program, from a horizontal logic among equals and in the fact of sharing the generation of knowledge, the transfer, the innovation of teaching methods, all of this, in a scenario of digital transformation. He pointed out the importance of micro-credentials, and indicated that the challenges of higher education are the same in Spain as in Latin America and the Caribbean. He referred to the international mobility of faculty and student body, internal policies, interdisciplinarity and digitalization in the implementation of that logic. "I like to say that we are in an epochal change, not an era of change," he added. Subirats expressed the ministry's support for the plan outlined, and its hope that at the next EU-CELAC (European Union - Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) summit, which will take place in 2023 in Santiago de Compostela, during the Spanish presidency of the Council of the European Union, the first results will be presented.

Mercedes Siles Molina, Director of ANECA, spoke about strengthening this cooperation and building trust from the institutions and stressed: "The program presented is a good example of the new ANECA we are consolidating, an agency focused on accompanying Higher Education Institutions (HEI), from the co-responsibility in the assurance and improvement of quality in network collaboration with all the agents involved and with an international projection". On the other hand, he highlighted the international perspective and the importance of having the collaboration of a partner with the trajectory of UNESCO IESALC, under the umbrella of AECID's Intercoonecta project, which is committed to education as a driver of development. "This is an opportunity to materialize and consolidate a network of co-creation, innovation and training among peers," said the director of ANECA.

For his part, Antón Leis García, director of AECID, stressed that "this plan seeks to respond to the needs of a Latin America and the Caribbean undergoing profound transformations and to the renewal of Spanish Cooperation in its strategies in the region, where knowledge management is essential to strengthen the institutional capacities of partner countries and the quality of their policies. Intercoonecta aims, at the same time, to support regional integration and south-south cooperation processes, promoting the exchange and creation of networks and links between professionals and experts in the region". He also pointed out that the university has always been a good partner and that this ANECA initiative, in collaboration with UNESCO IESALC, responds to the renewed Intercoonecta call for 2021, which "seeks to generate impact in open innovation in public institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean with a focus on the objectives of the 2030 Agenda, created in collaboration with AECID teams".  

Alfonso Vallés Sales, president of ANECA's internationalization commission, made a tour of the "LAB Quality that unites us" program, highlighting the importance of establishing a transnational network of quality Higher Education Institutions in the region with a vocation of permanence and at the service of cross-border mobility of talent. The creation of such a network requires the diversity of its participants and a horizontal approach through a dialogue among equals. Among the keys to this dialogue is the role of quality agencies in accompanying the transitions that must take place in the knowledge space of Latin America and the Caribbean for a transformation in which the region's higher education institutions themselves must play a leading role. Among the objectives of the network is the centrality of institutional accreditation coupled to an eco-social contract for sustainability and the 2030 agenda. 

The day continued with a dialogue between Mercedes Siles Molina, Antón Leis and Francesc Pedró, on the "Alliance for the transformation of Higher Education Institutions in the Latin American and Caribbean region". This roundtable was moderated by Carlos Mataix Aldeanueva, Director of the Innovation Center for Development Technology itdUPM. 

Carlos Mataix began the dialogue by stressing that collaboration requires incentivization and progress towards transformation with a course of international relations and large doses of cooperation, ingredients that ANECA, AECID and UNESCO IESALC clearly provide. They spoke about the role of AECID in the generation of knowledge exchange networks in the Ibero-American space, an outstanding example being the Interconecta plan; they reflected on higher education in the changing world in which we live; the transforming potential of quality systems in the higher knowledge space, the new generation of quality programs to advance in the new challenges of this change. He also spoke of the alliance for the quality of knowledge in Latin America, the Caribbean and Spain, and of social development through education, innovative strategies for the construction and improvement of systems that have an impact on the global challenge of achieving quality higher education. Francesc Pedró pointed out that "universities in Latin America and the Caribbean are living a moment of transition towards more demanding systems in terms of quality and equity and, in this process, ANECA's alliance with UNESCO IESALC can contribute enormously to the development of more and better capacities, fostering regional cooperation". In the words of Mercedes Siles: "ANECA will accompany the institutions in this innovative and transforming process that we are building together". The Director of ANECA closed the event by emphasizing the wish that the project is seen as a well done, productive, solid and stable work over time, and as an example of trust building between institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean.