Regionalism of higher education in the regional integration process of MERCOSUR

PERROTTA, DANIELA

Buenos Aires

Congreso; XV Comparative Education World Congress; 2013

The present paper analyzes the characteristics of MERCOSUR regional policies in the area of higher education as part of the broader political project within the integration agreement. It is also studied the relationship of such regional policies with the national definition of public policies. In order to achieve this goal we proceed to a case study: the policy of quality accreditation of degree courses in MERCOSUR (1998-2012), which had a pilot phase between 2002 and 2006 (Mecanismo Experimental de Acreditación de Carreras de Grado Universitario del MERCOSUR, Bolivia y Chile, MEXA) and became, in mid-2008 in a permanent system (Sistema de Acreditación de Carreras Universitarias para el reconocimiento regional de la calidad académica de sus respectivas titulaciones en el MERCOSUR y Estados Asociados, ARCU-SUR). From this general research goal the objective is to conduct an in-depth study of the regional policy of quality accreditation of undergraduate courses within MERCOSUR (the MEXA & ARCU-SUR) so as to: i) discern how the regional political project links with such policy; ii) identify and analyze how both the national and regional institutional and political setting affect the form and content that the regional policy by paying attention to: a) the institutional rules of MERCOSUR (regional level); b) the asymmetry between the member States (national level) and c) the trends towards internationalization and regionalization of higher education (global level), and iii) describe and characterize the relationship between domestic and regional policies for the sector, which could be stated as coordination, complementarity, convergence and / or harmonization, among other possible