The Network of Latin American and Caribbean Associations of Private Universities – REALCUP, holds its 17th Assembly in the City of Buenos Aires, Argentina, between Tuesday, October 4 and Thursday, October 6, where the rector of the María Cano University Foundation attends as a speaker representing Colombia and the Colombian Association of Higher Education Institutions – ACIET. In the activity they will be present in representation of the different countries: CRUP, Argentina. President Rodolfo De Vincenzi – ACIET, Colombia. President Hugo Alberto Valencia Porras – AUPRI, Dominican Republic. President José Ramón Holguín Brito – AUPPA, Panama. President Ricaurte Antonio Martínez Robles – FIPES, Peru. President Juan Manuel Ostoja – FIMPES, Mexico. President José Mata – CUP, Chile. President Cristian Nazer – ANUP, Bolivia. President Rene Polo Salinas – APUP, Paraguay. President Luis Lima and SEMESP, Brazil. President Lucia Texeira; as well as the Paraguayan Association of Private Universities – APUP and the Dominican Association of University Rectors – ADRUP.

The main objective of the Assembly, which is attended by 620 Universities, is to promote a space for exchange and debate on the situation of higher education in the Latin American and Caribbean region, identifying the challenges and limitations it faces in a context of sustained progress in globalization, the technological revolution and the changing demands of the social and productive sector. The World Conference on Higher Education held in May 2022 in Barcelona has left important reflections on the inclusion, equity and quality of higher education. The social inequities that the Latin American and Caribbean region is going through challenge the National States and Higher Education Institutions to transform their regulatory frameworks, their practices and their conceptions to integrate more and more people into the higher education system under the motto “leave no one behind” (UNESCO 2022).

The massification of higher education, the diversification of education providers and the growth of academic mobility entail the imperative of quality assurance as an identity and indissoluble quality of the notion of education. New forms of learning and new forms of access to higher education through the recognition of skills acquired in instances of non-formal or informal education require rethinking training paths towards more flexible and inclusive approaches.

REALCUP: Network of Latin American and Caribbean Associations of Private Universities was founded in 2016 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with the support of IESALC-UNESCO. It is currently made up of 12 Associations of private universities from 11 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. The priority objectives are: Promote a space for regional integration and dialogue where strategies are defined that contribute to improving the quality of teaching, research, development, transfer and linkage with the needs of society. In addition to granting greater visibility to the private initiative in the region in terms of its achievements and challenges to meet educational needs, rescuing the significance acquired by the relationship with the National States and with international organizations such as IESALC-UNESCO.

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