An APRU delegation comprised of APRU Chief Executive Prof. Thomas Schneider and APRU Senior Director, Network and Student Programs Adriana Rojas spent the last week of January touring APRU’s four member universities in Mexico, Ecuador, Chile, and Colombia to discuss their current and future engagement with APRU.

Tecnológico de Monterrey shared its interest in working with APRU on addressing key topics related to AI and new technology in education, diversity equity, inclusion, and sustainability. Professor David Garza, Rector, Tecnológico de Monterrey was especially interested in an APRU Metaverse project.

The Universidad de Chile under the leadership of Rector Rosa Devés, wishes to deepen engagement with APRU particularly with the Museums of the Pacific, Biodiversity, and Multi-hazards programs, as well as new areas such as Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) initiatives. The university’s internationalization strategy includes an expansion of virtual mobility.

“APRU opens spaces for academics and students from different disciplines to expand their networks and project their academic work,” said Prof. Devés.

“Important opportunities are offered to promote the development of professional teams that today contribute substantively to a wide range of areas of our university.”

At Universidad de Los Andes, Vice-President for Research and Creation, Jimena Hurtado and her colleagues discussed with APRU engagement in entrepreneurship in the deep technology fields of biodiversity, biotechnology, and bioengineering.

Exchanges with the Universidad San Francisco de Quito under the leadership of Rector Prof. Diego Quiroga, for their part, focused on COIL, biodiversity, and student experiences. Prof. Quiroga highlighted the importance of international collaboration for comparative studies.

“A very heartfelt thank you to our member universities in Mexico, Ecuador, Chile, and Colombia for their warm hospitality in welcoming us to their campuses,” said Prof. Schneider.

“We are delighted to witness a strengthening of our Latin American members’ voices within the APRU network.”