COMUNICACIÓN

YUSTE FOUNDATION PARTICIPATES IN THE LATIN AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES’ ASSOCIATION’S (AULA) RECTORS’ COUNCIL ANNUAL MEETING HELD IN ARGENTINA

The European and Ibero-American Academy of Yuste Foundation participates in the 19th annual meeting of the Latin American Universities Association’s (AULA) Rectors’ Council and Academic Technical Group.

This encounter, attended by the Director of the European and Ibero-American Academy of Yuste Foundation, Juan Carlos Moreno, is held at the Northeast National University of the Province of Buenos Aires (UNNOBA) to foster and coordinate academic programmes of higher education through virtual means.

During his speech in the opening session of the Rectors’ Meeting, Juan Carlos Moreno advocated for a “new framework of relations between the EU and Latin America based on fostering education and culture that will have the mobility of students and the promotion of virtual training as a cornerstone in order to overcome localisms and outdated nationalisms”.

In the like manner, Moreno explained the role that the European and Ibero-American Academy of Yuste Foundation carries out in this sense, being an Extremaduran foundation that “constantly looks at both sides of the Atlantic due to its history and vocation and that annually brings together students from over twenty countries”.

Among the subjects dealt with in this encounter were the schedule of the virtual academic programme, the students’ and professors’ mobility strategy or the inclusion of universities in the network, as well as the reformation of the Ibero-American Virtual Magazine of Social Sciences (REVIBE) of which Yuste Foundation and the University of Extremadura are in charge.

LATIN AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES’ ASSOCIATION

AULA is an association that was propelled by the Extremaduran Centre for Studies and Cooperation with Ibero-America (CEXECI) and the University of Extremadura in 2007.

At present, twenty public universities comprise it: the Argentinian National University of La Plata; the National University of Córdoba; the National University of Entre Ríos; the National Northeast University of the Province of Buenos Aires; the University of Quilmes, and the National University of the Northeast; the University of Porto and the Polytechnic Institute of Lisbon, in Portugal; the University of Extremadura (Spain); the Mexican universities of Guadalajara; the Autonomous National University of Mexico and the Autonomous University of Chiapas; the University of Santiago de Chile; the Autonomous National University of Honduras; the Autonomous National University of Nicaragua; the University of Panamá; the Federal University of Santa María (Brazil); the University of Asunción of Paraguay; the Latin American Autonomous University of Medellín, and the Agrarian University of Havana. Furthermore, the European and Ibero-American Academy of Yuste Foundation is an honorary member.

AULA’s main initiative is the Latin American Virtual Campus, CAVILA; a campus to foster teaching, research, and the Latin American identity through cultural extension (www.cavila.org).

CAVILA, which initiated its activities in 2008, has undergone a transformation process and has become a powerful campus, including not only a shared academic programme but also mutual support as far as the transfer of new information technologies and communication; the possibility of sharing virtual libraries; the creation of research networks or student mobility programmes among the public universities it comprises is concerned.

In this virtual space, the different universities it is made up of offer higher education, degrees and courses, degree or postgraduate subjects and they work in research networks. The Latin American Virtual Campus includes approximately 835.400 students and around 74.000 professors and researchers.

REVIBE Magazine

Another AULA-CAVILA project is the Ibero-American Virtual Magazine of Social Sciences (REVIBE). This space is created as a digital academic platform that attempts to create its own scientific space on Ibero-American cultural and education identity. To this end, its contents are based on the introduction of new perspectives and interdisciplinary research lines that may foster new visions on the American world.