XX Ordinary Session of SIESCA

San Pablo de Heredia, Costa Rica, April 19, 2023

On April 19 and 20, the 20th ordinary session of the Higher Education Internationalization System -SIESCA- will take place, an activity to be carried out in a hybrid mode, in person at the El Higuerón Campus in San Pablo Heredia, of the University National of Costa Rica.

The SIESCA is the body of the Central American University Confederation that promotes the institutionalization of internationalization as a strategic instrument to promote the quality of the CSUCA member universities, and thus, contribute to the training of international competencies of its graduates.

With the words of Francisco Gonzáles, Rector of the National University of Costa Rica -UNA- and President of CSUCA, the session was opened, a space in which I reflect on the history of the region and the framework in which the creation of the UNA, ?It is important to review the origins of our institution, remembering that we were born into public and cultural life in 1973, with a Central American context suffered in conflicts, which today is cause for reflection, since the challenges we have are of magnitudes wide to what sheltered us at the time the university opened its doors?

For his part, Carlos Alvarado, Secretary General of CSUCA pointed out ?Regarding globalization, the internationalization of higher education is considered a factor that can contribute to the implementation of international standards that promote continuous improvement, relevance, training of competent human talent at an international level?

While Maynor Barrientos, Coordinator of SIESCA indicated ?This is a space to give continuity to the strategic objectives of program 5, of PIRESC V, which correspond to the area of internationalization, challenges that we have as a region and which we have addressed since the year 2021, when the PIRESC was approved?

Rosemary Hernández, Director of the Office of International Affairs and External Cooperation of the UNA -AICE-, expressed ?We have to think about an internationalization that allows us to identify the contribution that as a region we can give to knowledge, knowledge and science, from a critical and humanist perspective?.

Among the activities to be carried out in the 20th session, there is a presentation on the Congress of the Americas on International Education -CAEI- by David Julien, Executive Secretary of the Inter-American Higher Education Organization -OUI-,  the Scientific Diplomacy conference, by Alejandro Morales Gutiérrez, head of the International Cooperation Section of the Office of International Affairs and External Cooperation of the University of Costa Rica and the discussion on good practices for the internationalization of the university in the post- pandemic. 

It is important to note that the ordinary session gives rise to work according to the established groups, referring to program 5 of the Fifth Plan for the Regional Integration of Higher Education in Central America and the Dominican Republic -PIRESC V-.