CRUE and the National Association of Universities and Institutions of Higher Education of Mexico (ANUIES), together with the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), organised the 2024 Mexico-Spain Rectors Summit under the slogan “Higher Education, Inclusion and Diversity”, on 4 and 5 March in Mexico City. This event also had the collaboration of the Colegio de Mexico, Santander Universidades Mexico, the Spanish Athenaeum of Mexico and the Spanish Embassy in Mexico, and has brought together over a hundred higher education institutions from both countries, including the Spanish National Institute of the Americas. 44 rectors were present, including Alfonso Méndiz, representing UIC Barcelona.

Over two days, several working sessions were held on diverse topics: higher education institutions as meeting places in Spain and Mexico; lifelong education and new forms of learning; artificial intelligence, ethics and social responsibility of higher education; academic mobility and cultural cooperation between Mexico and Spain; and open science and social knowledge management.

The objective of the meeting was the search for a mechanism of bilateral dialogue that allows for the design of an Academic Cooperation Agenda between ANUIES and CRUE from the perspective of university social responsibility. During the closing ceremony, the president of the Colegio de México, Silvia Giorguli, and the president of Crue-Internationalisation and Cooperation and rector of the UNED, Ricardo Mairal, read out the joint declaration of the summit titled “The mission of universities is to provide tangible solutions to social needs”. He underlined that educational institutions in both countries “are key factors in the development of societies and a unique meeting space because of their possibilities to offer answers to the constant changes and great challenges we face today”. 

University as a bridge between Mexico and Spain

The president of CRUE and rector of the Universitat Jaume I, Eva Alcón, said that the university “is the bridge par excellence to strengthen relations between countries” and stressed that the Higher Education Institutions of Mexico and Spain had shared experiences and good practices on academic mobility programmes and cultural cooperation that exist between the two countries over the past two days, which point to new strategies for boosting inclusive and virtual mobility.

The summit concluded with the commitment to become “a permanent exercise for the exchange of ideas, good practices and the definition of strategic projects”. The next bilateral meeting will be held in Spain in 2026.