Graduate College is building new models of collaboration with Mexico

For the past several years, the Graduate College at Arizona State University has made a concerted effort to remove obstacles that may prevent students from underrepresented regions of the world from considering ASU. 

Which is why Dean Alfredo Artiles and Associate Dean Enrique Vivoni traveled to Mexico in August with a robust plan to deepen relationships and further build integral academic in-roads with the country.

“Our focus is to build international partnerships in Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia, three underrepresented regions among ASU’s international graduate student and scholar populations,” Dean Artiles noted. “Mexico is our southern neighbor and important to ASU’s future.”

Of the more than 21,000 graduate students who attend ASU, only a small number come from Mexico, according to Dean Vivoni. Those numbers are on the rise; the university had no fellows from Mexico’s science- and tech-focused CONACYT agency in 2012 but now boasts 13, for instance. Still, in a country of nearly 130 million people, there’s plenty of room to grow.

“This trip was part of gaining momentum,” Dean Vivoni said. “This whole thing is about new models of collaboration.”

To pursue those new models, Deans Artiles and Vivoni spent three days in Mexico City with representatives from CONACYT and the Fulbright Commission, as well as public and private sector officials. They also met with school officials at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, or UNAM, to discuss academic partnerships and international accelerated degree programs, also known as IADPs, between the universities.

“We've expanded our portfolio beyond Fullbright and CONACYT,” Dean Vivoni said. “The trip's success is going to depend on the follow-up. But we were introduced to new ideas for capacity-building in Mexico that we were unaware of. And that will help us structure better plans moving forward.”

Dean Artiles and Dean Vivoni will both be traveling to Mexico more often. Dean Artiles just returned from Mexico City, where ASU and Tecnológico de Monterrey collaborated to launch an executive MBA program. In October, Vivoni will join additional ASU faculty, along with faculty from UNAM and a leader within the Mexican government, for an academic event on water and climate challenges.