Québec, 25 janvier 2016
Dear Inter-American Organization for Higher Education member,
This message to our members at the beginning of each year is very special to me. This represents the last letter that I will send to you as Executive Secretary General as my term in office at the IOHE has ended. As you may know, the Board of Directors and the General Assembly, at the meetings in Quito, Ecuador last October 19th, ratified the nomination of Mr. David Julien as Executive Secretary General. My successor will take office as of next February 1st and we wish him a very warm welcome.
As for me, I have accepted a one-year term as the Chancellor of IOHE’s Board of Directors in support of the general transition process as well as a specific set of projects. I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all an excellent 2016 at the professional and institutional level and to extend my sincerest gratitude for your collaboration and support over these 8 years when I was the head of the IOHE Executive Secretariat and also for the four years that I was head of the Executive Secretariat for the Conference of the Americas on International Education (CAIE). I hope you will extend the same important support to Mr. Julien in order to position our values and objectives as well as the academic products and services offered by the IOHE to its members in the goal of contributing to the transformation of higher education in our region.
In the year 2016, IOHE will complete the implementation of the 2011-2016 Strategic Orientations. From 2011-2015, we have witnessed amazing results thanks to the commitment of our governing bodies and authorities, the dedication of executive directors of our programs – IGLU, COLAM and CAMPUS – as well as the invaluable participation of our members in the objective of strengthening the IOHE as well as keeping it innovative in the 21st century.
I am proud of what we have accomplished in this time. We have successfully mobilized more than 10 000 university managers and leaders, academics, researchers from around 500 Higher Education Institutions and governmental, international, regional and national organizations from 35 countries. These participants have bolstered 42 of 45 Strategic Actions programmed around the axes linked to Training of Human Capital, Innovation, internationalization and the Creation of a Common Spaces for Higher Education.
I think back particularly to the revival of the IGLU program with its diverse and innovative offers, to our contribution to the birth of CAIE as a common space for issues regarding internationalization, to the creation of new spaces such as The Space for Women Leaders from Higher Education Institutions in the Americas (EMULIES), the Inter-American Space of Technical and Technological Institutions of Higher Education (EISTEC), SOCIAL CAMPUS and the International Conference of Knowledge and Research (CIKI), among others, as well as the visibility we have earned our institutional commitment through the multitude of inter-American initiatives.
In addition, we have reinforced our ties with strategic partners in different ways in the universe of higher education. We have also strengthened and diversified our membership which, today, is comprised of 340 members, of which 56% consists of public universities, 35% private universities, and 9% community-based higher education institutions. We are also equipped with an efficient system of governance which reflects our inter-American and inter-cultural nature, which is accompanied by a transparent strategy built on academic, administrative, technological and financial viability.
Of course, many challenges remain, including to construct a common space for higher education, to mobilize the “New Generation”, and to promote “inclusion” and the North-South and South-South collaboration. However, I am certain that we can look to the future and the steps that lie ahead with great optimism.
2016 IOHE Plan of Activities
This year, the IOHE will offer more than 90 activities to its members. The Portfolio of Products and Services, built around the themes of: Leadership and Management; Innovation; Research and Doctorate Training; Internationalization; Access, Retention and Graduation and Technical and Technological Instruction, will contribute to the stimulation of transformed and transformative higher education. Inter-American events will consist of many opportunities to create strategic partnerships as well as to reinforce existing alliances.
The annual Plan of Activities is the perfect, concrete illustration of the major ideas we hope to accomplish through pooling our resources in order to share a single ideal and vision of development of higher education across the Americas. This is the fruit of a dialogue and intense, effective exchanges among the IOHE regions, coordinated by the Regional Vice-Presidents in Andean Countries, Brazil, Canada, the Caribbean, Central America, Colombia, Mexico, the Southern Cone, as well as IGLU, COLAM and CAMPUS programs and finally the Executive Secretariat of IOHE.
Of great importance will be the work performed in conjuction with our membership, the highest governace bodies and led by IOHE President, Allan Cahoon, President of Royal Roads University. That work will be held this year as part of the exercise that will culminate in the IOHE Strategic Guidelines 2017-2022.
Patricia Gudiño
Executive Secretary General
Executive Secretary of CAIE