Confederación Universitaria Centroamericana

Mission

The Confederación Universitaria Centroamericana is the organization of integration of the Central America Public University System, which promotes the development of the universities trough the cooperation and joint work with society and the State, comprehensive approach to regional problems and their proposed solutions, in a framework of commitments, solidarity, Tolerance, transparence and equity. Promotes the development of scientific, technologic and humanistic knowledge and its application in the training of professionals capable of making choices and influence in the sustainable development of the region.

Vision

The Confederación Universitaria Centroamericana, is an organization of proactive public universities which aims to promote with leadership the regional integration of Central America university system, that enhances the planning and the capacity of universities, aimed to a university management that promotes the quality, relevance, efficiency and equity of public higher education, and strives to achieve a higher education of greater relevance and quality in Central America region through of scientific and technological performance, the coordination and effective links between the systems, programs and projects that contribute to the solution of common problems of the region, to the integral formation of individuals, the Central American cultural identity, the student and teachers mobility in the region, to the linking of the university with society and the state, to peaceful coexistence and integral development of the Central American population with transparency, humanism, justice and equity in a harmonious relationship with the environment.

Historical Review

The movement of institutional renewal in Central America universities starts from the I Central America Congress, held in San Salvador in 19 48, from which was created the Confederación Universitaria Centroamericana and its highest authority, the CSUCA. The I Congress approved the “Declaration of Principles on the purposes and functions of the contemporary university and especially of universities in Central America”, being the pillars: the University autonomy, the scientific and humanistic unification of the university education, the concept of education for the democratic building and the establishment of the regional university organisms.

With the challenge to assess the duty of the Confederacy, in 1961 the CSUCA approved the Primer Plan de Integración Regional de la Educación Superior en Centroamérica PIRESC I, with the imperative of strengthen and improve the higher education and to diversify its content in the region, making its programs relevant to regional development process. From PIRESC I, schools or regional range are created with special emphasis in the scientific – technologic scope.

Since the seventies to early nineties, the most of Central America universities and the CSUCA, were affected by the internal armed conflict suffered mainly in Nicaragua El Salvador and Guatemala. In the early nineties, the CSCUA suffers a institutional crisis, which when it was mitigated allows to perform in 1995, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, the IV Central America University Congress.

In this conclave PIRESC II was approved, in which results include the creation of Regional University Systems and the Academic Networks like: the Sistema de Carreras y Postgrados Regionales (SICAR), el Sistema Centroamericano de Evaluación y Acreditación de la Educación Superior (SICEVAES), el Sistema Centroamericano de Relación Universidad- Sector Productivo (SICAUSP), el Consejo Regional de Vida Estudiantil (CONREVE), la Red de Sistemas Integrados de Información Documental (Red SIID), el Programa de Intercambio Académico ANUIES-CSUCA.

The System, Networks and programs, were ratified and strengthen  in the V Central America University Congress performed in 1990 in San José, Costa Rica. With the development reached in the framework of SICEVAES, the CSUCA prompted the establishment of Consejo Centroamericano de Acreditación de la Educación Superior (CCA) whose members were sworn in November of 2003 in Panamá.

In the VI Central America University Congress performed the 10th  and 11th of November of 2004 in Guatemala, were approved 16 Strategic Major Areas for the next 10 years, which were ratified in the LXXIII meeting of the Consejo Superior Universitario Centroamericano, which were the following:

• IDENTITY AND DEFENSE OF THE CENTRAL AMERICA PUBLIC UNIVERSITY.
• RESCUE, DEFENSE, RESEARCH AND PROMOTION OF MULTICULTURAL IDENTITY OF THE REGION.
• LEADERSHIP OF CENTRAL AMERICA PUBLIC UNIVERSITY IN THE SOLUTION OF REGIONAL PROBLEMS.
• PROJECTION OF THE CONFEDERATION IN THE INTERNATIONAL FIELD.
• RELATION PUBLIC UNIVERSITY, SOCIETY AND STATE. IT WAS APPROVED TO INCLUDE AS AN ACTION COURSE THE PROMOTION OF FOOD AND NUTRITION SECURITY IN THE REGION.
• IMPACT OF THE UNIVERSITY CONFEDERATION IN THE INTEGRATION AND IMPROVEMENT OF THE EDUCATION SYSTEMS IN THE REGION
• COVERAGE, EQUITY AND QUALITY OF THE PUBLIC HIGHER EDUCATION.
• HARMONIZATION OF PUBLIC HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE REGION.
• STRENGTHENING OF REGIONAL IMPACT RESEARCH.
• EFFICIENCY AND TRANSPARENCY OF ADMINISTRATIVE AND FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC HIGHER EDUCATION.
• STATE FUNDING OF PUBLIC HIGHER EDUCATION.
• SOLIDARITY AMONG PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES OF THE REGION FOR OPTIMIZATION WITH A REGIONAL APPROACH OF UNIVERSITY RESOURCES.
• MANAGEMENT OF INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION FOR INTEGRATION AND IMPROVEMENT OF PUBLIC HIGHER EDUCATION.
• STUDEN LIFE.
• TEACHING CAREER.
• GLOBALIZATION AND ITS IMPACT ON SOCIETY AND CENTRAL AERICA PUBLIC HIGHER EDUCATION.

The previous confirm that the dynamic of CSUCA is immersed in process of global order, as the liberalization of trade and services, the emergence of new alliances and global academic networks and virtual and hybrid forms of teaching and learning, which lead us to a new context of the Central America higher education.