Economic development and internationalization of higher education. Challenges for Cuba XII Taller Internacional de "Internacionalización de la Educación Superior"

Abstract

The growing global polarization of wealth marks, in a multiple way, the process of internationalization of higher education, where the levels of development of the countries are also refracted in the existing asymmetries between Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). This work aimed to demonstrate the interdependence between levels of economic development and the internationalization processes of higher education on a global scale. The very characteristics of developed countries and their HEIs mean that the main scientific and academic links along strategic lines are established between them. With the south, ties are, as a rule, focused more on collaboration than on equal cooperation. The emphasis of this research was placed on Cuba and its HEIs, where, to the universal obstacles, those derived from the blockade and others with endogenous causes that can be overcome with superior management of these processes are added. The research was crowned with the proposal of actions to enhance insertion in internationalization, promoting the substance of higher education. The methodology used the dialectical-materialist conception and the historical-logical theoretical methods and the synthetic analytical, with emphasis on the systemic approach, the bibliographic-documentary was used as an empirical method.