University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, United States
Universidad de Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Mexico
Consortium for North American Higher Education Collaboration (CONAHEC), United States
National Association of Universities and Institutions of Higher Education (ANUIES), Mexico
A Scalable, Bilateral Model for Increasing Student Engagement with Industry: The CONAHEC/ANUIES Project Based Mobility Program
The University of Arizona, along with Universidad de Guadalajara, proposed to create a project-based mobility network between the Consortium for North American Higher Education Collaboration (CONAHEC) and La Asociación Nacional de Universidades e Institutciones de Educación Superior (ANUIES). The main goal of this project was to help engineering students at selected institutions to network with other organizations. The network leveraged the institutional membership of 180 institutions between the U.S and Mexico, providing engineering students with many job opportunities. Moreover, this new program served as an addition to the already existing program at the University of Arizona, where interdisciplinary teams of engineering students collaborate to solve real-world problems. During this time, the University of Arizona prioritized on finalizing the redesign of the program in order to facilitate student participation as well as additional work on the web-based information. Some of the challenges they have faced focused on student participation. However, one of the best practices of the program had been the conversations with government agencies. Public Affairs Officers from the U.S and Canadian embassies in Mexico have shown a lot of interest in supporting the students who join the program and also promoting the program to other professional organizations.