Internationalisation of Higher Education: Building South-South Partnerships between China and Mexico

Abstract

As an important emerging economy, Mexico is significant to China for promoting world multipolarisation as well as an important partner in jointly building a community of shared future for mankind. Educational exchanges and co-operation are an indispensable part of friendly transactions between China and Mexico. Both countries have made many advancements in the fields of personnel turnover, the establishment of overseas co-operation centres, language promotion, and vocational and technical training. Both China and Mexico regard the other as an important education partner. In future co-operation, the two countries should continue to promote vocational education, improve the degree system, and pay attention to hidden safety issues.

1 Introduction

In the 1970s, as the relationship between China and the United States (US) eased and the former resumed its legitimate seat at the United Nations, good opportunities emerged for both China and Mexico to establish diplomatic relations. The establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Mexico in 1972 was followed by a series of exchanges and co-operation between both countries. As we enter the 21st century, China has accelerated the pace of opening up to the outside world. Mexico, also a developing country with an emerging economy, has become an important partner in opening up new areas of co-operation. It is now an important fulcrum for China’s development of the Latin American market, an important force for China’s promotion of global multipolarity, and an important partner in building a community with a shared future for mankind. Therefore, Mexico has become a ‘South-South co-operation’ partner that China urgently needs and focuses on for a breakthrough. In 2003, China signed a strategic partnership with Mexico, which was upgraded to a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2013. In 2014, the two countries issued the Action Outline on Promoting the China-Mexico Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. In 2018, China became the second-largest trading partner of Mexico, while Mexico became China’s second-largest trading partner in Latin America. Sino-Mexican co-operation always adheres to the principle of co-operation in trade and economic advancement as well as comprehensive development. Educational exchanges and co-operation are the basis and extension of the development of China-Mexico relations. After nearly 50 years of development, although Sino-Mexican educational exchanges and co-operation have made great progress, they have developed at a significantly slower pace than bilateral political and economic relations both in scale and depth. Educational co-operation has not reached the due scale, indicating that there is a lot of room for co-operation between China and Mexico. Therefore, studying the status quo and challenges of Sino-Mexican education exchanges and co-operation has important theoretical and practical significance for future co-operation.

2 Identity of Internationalisation of Higher Education: China and Mexico

2.1 Identity of Internationalisation of Higher Education in China

Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the party and the country have focussed on cultivating talents as well as regarded education as an important tool for socialist construction. Therefore, opening up to learn from the Soviet Union was an important policy of Chinese higher education. The development of the internationalisation policy of Chinese education relied on learning from the Soviet Union and providing foreign aid to countries in the socialist camp. From 1949 to 1977, Chinese higher education focussed on its own rectification and development, and internationalisation was still in the initial stage of exploration.

Referring to the processes of reforming and opening up as a new starting point, the period from 1978 to 1992 became the initial stage of development of the internationalisation of higher education in China. Based on Comrade Deng Xiaoping’s ‘three education orientations’, China’s higher education has made great progress and international development has also officially entered the race. In June 1978, Comrade Deng Xiaoping issued an instruction to expand the process of sending Chinese students abroad to study: ‘I approve of the increase in the number of international students. This is one of the important ways to achieve quick results and improve the level of our country within five years. We should send thousands of students studying abroad, not just ten or eight. We should do everything possible to speed up the pace, and the road should be wider and wider’ (Fan & Yang, 1998, pp. 47–52). According to this instruction, in August 1978, the Ministry of Education issued a notice Concerning the Increase of Students Studying Abroad and Their Selection, increasing the number of overseas students from the planned 500 to 3,000 (Jiang, 2005, p. 25). In 1981, the Interim provisions on studying abroad at one’s own expense were issued, which allowed students to apply for studying abroad in a self-funded way and sharply increase the number of overseas students. In 1986, the China Service Centre for Scholarly Exchanges was established, and the Offices of Educational Affairs of Chinese embassies and consulates abroad were established one after another. In December of the same year, the State Council promulgated the Interim Provisions on Chinese Students Studying Abroad, together with the five administrative rules on government-sponsored overseas education issued by the State Education Commission in 1987, which can still be seen in current management systems for studying abroad.

From 1992 to 2000, under the market economy, China deepened the opening-up of education, allowing the internationalisation of higher education to enter the stage of development and expansion. On the one hand, China’s education legislation has made significant progress and the internationalisation of higher education is moving toward normative development through legal improvement and policy guidance. The Outline of China’s Education Reform and Development in 1993 emphasised the need to ‘further expand the opening-up of education to the outside world’ (Ministry of Education, 1994). The Education Law, which was promulgated in 1995, had a special chapter on ‘External Exchange and Co-operation in Education’ and made a series of specific regulations. The Higher Education Law promulgated in 1998 stipulated more detailed regulations on foreign educational exchanges at the university level. On the other hand, to further promote the process of studying abroad, the State Education Commission issued the Notice on Issues Related to Studying Abroad at Your Own Expenses to further loosen the policy of studying abroad at the student’s expense. In 1996, the China Scholarship Council was established to promote the enrolment, selection, and management of both international students in China and Chinese students abroad to embark on the track of institutionalisation, standardisation, and legalisation. At the same time, the world-class university construction project ‘985 Project’, which began at the university level in 1998, has greatly advanced the process of internationalisation and quality of higher education in China.

China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, facing the greater challenges brought about by economic globalisation and the opening-up of the education market. The internationalisation of higher education in China entered a stage of rapid development. The State Council promulgated the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Chinese-Foreign Co-operation in Running Schools in 2003 and later issued the Implementation Measures for the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Chinese-foreign Co-operation in Running Schools, which improved the top-level design of the policy and promoted the development of Chinese-foreign co-operation, overseas schools, and Confucius Institutes. In 2010, the Ministry of Education promulgated the Outline of China’s National Plan for Medium and Long-term Education Reform and Development 2010–2020, which set forth requirements for foreign exchanges of higher education from various aspects such as school running, teaching, and scientific research. In 2010, the Ministry of Education issued and implemented the Study in China Plan to strengthen Chinese-foreign education exchanges and co-operation, promote the sustained and sound development of studying in China, and improve the level of internationalisation of education in China. The Plan states that by 2020, China will become Asia’s largest destination for studying abroad.

After 2012, the Party Central Committee, with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, emphasised the importance of education and talent cultivation as well as regarded education as an important force for promoting the progress of human civilisation and building a community with a shared future for mankind. In 2014, the State Council issued a decision on accelerating the development of modern vocational education, which provides a framework and a path for vocational colleges in serving the strategic layout of enterprise internationalisation and cultivating international talents. In 2015, China promulgated the Overall Plan to Promote the Construction of World-class Universities and World-class Disciplines, which called for promoting international exchanges and co-operation, strengthening substantive co-operation with world-class universities and academic institutions, enhancing international collaborative innovation, and effectively improving international competitiveness and the voice of China’s higher education. In 2016, the 13th Five-Year Plan clearly stated that international exchanges and co-operation should ‘promote the joint construction of the Belt and Road education action, implement the study abroad action plan, and continue to run Confucius Institutes well’ (Xiong, 2019, pp. 7–9). In 2016, the General Office of the Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued several opinions on better work on educational opening in the new period. It systematically designed and emphasised the key strategy of opening up education in co-operation with the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Subsequently, the Education Action to Push Forward Joint Construction of the Belt and Road issued by the Ministry of Education emphasised the importance of raising the internationalisation of higher education to serve the national BRI. In 2019, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued China’s Education Modernisation 2035, which proposed the strategic task of ‘creating a new pattern of education opening-up’. The internationalisation of Chinese higher education has entered a new era of quality and efficiency improvement.

Table 1

The identity of internationalisation of higher education of China

Since the reform and opening up, the scale of the Chinese market for studying abroad has shown exponential growth. In 2018, China became the world’s largest source of foreign students and the largest destination for studying abroad in Asia (see Table 2). The destination of Chinese students studying abroad is still relatively concentrated; most of them go to developed countries or regions in Europe and America. As the opening-up process of Chinese education continues to accelerate, countries along the BRI as well as countries with emerging markets will become new growth points.

Table 2

The number of Chinese students studying abroad and the number of foreign students studying in China from 2000 to 2018

Source: Compiled from the Ministry of Education on the status of Chinese students studying abroad and the statistics of foreign students studying in China from 2000 to 2018 2.2 Identity of Internationalisation of Higher Education in Mexico

The development of the internationalisation of Mexican higher education began after World War II. To further consolidate Mexico’s diplomatic support and political co-operation as well as to prevent the penetration of Soviet communist ideology in Mexico after World War II (Su, 2015, p. 70), the US initiated educational exchanges and co-operation with Mexico. On the one hand, the US sent its own students to study in Mexico to gain a deeper understanding of Mexico’s political, economic, cultural, and social systems. On the other hand, it provided Mexican elites with scholarships to study in the US, promoting people-to-people exchanges between the two sides and realising its ideology export to Mexico (Gacel, 2000, pp. 121–142). Since then, Mexico has opened the first chapter of the internationalisation of higher education, but the initiative for educational exchanges and co-operation was still on the US side. In 1970, the National Science and Technology Commission of Mexico was established. This committee is a national institution specialising in graduate-level education and scientific research. In the beginning, it initiated a graduate scholarship programme to select outstanding domestic talents, provide them with scholarships to study abroad, and increase the competitiveness of high-level talents in Mexico. In the 1980s, several relatively influential higher education institutions in Mexico established their Offices of International Affairs. These offices were the first professional institutions engaged in the management of international educational exchanges and co-operation in Mexico, which marked a more systematic and scientific development of these activities.

The year 1994 was a milestone for the internationalisation of Mexican higher education because Mexico had signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the US and Canada. This agreement provided an external impetus for Mexico’s international education co-operation. The signing of the free trade agreement accelerated the pace of Mexico’s economic globalisation and integration. Mexico started to integrate internationalisation into the development priorities of the state and higher education institutions. In 2001, the Mexican government promulgated the National Development Strategy (2001–2006). This government document pointed out that the Mexican government, society, and individuals should work together to accelerate the lagging education policies, regard internationalisation as a development path, and establish an advanced education system as soon as possible so that Mexican education could be fully integrated into the international arena (Gobierno de México, 2001, pp. 69–71). In response to this policy, in the same year, the Mexican Ministry of Education promulgated the National Education Plan 2001–2006. This plan first incorporated international co-operation into the national medium-term and long-term education plan, proposing an international co-operation strategy that focussed on improving the quality of higher education (Secretaría de Educación Pública, 2001, p. 11). In 2002, the Science and Technology Law was promulgated, providing the legal framework and guaranteeing Mexico’s international scientific research co-operation. In 2007, the National Development Strategy 2007–2012 was published. The strategy mentioned the use of international standards to evaluate teachers, students, and higher education institutions to improve the quality of Mexican higher education as well as promote Mexican teaching, research, technology, and innovation (Gobierno de México, 2007, pp. 182–199). In the same year, the Secretariat of Public Education (Secretaría de Educación Pública) promulgated the National Education Plan 2007–2012, which pointed out that Mexican higher education institutions need to further improve internationalisation and advance the processes of teaching, research and development, and innovation (Secretaría de Educación Pública, 2007, p. 28). The 2011 International Development Co-operation Law was promulgated. In the same year, the Mexican Secretariat of Foreign Affairs established the Agency for International Co-operation and Development, which launched the Scholarship Program for Outstanding Overseas Talents, making up for Mexican shortcomings in high-tech fields. The scholarship covers more than 180 countries around the world, including bilateral, multilateral, and special agreements, respectively, between Mexico and other countries. More than 100 higher education institutions participated in the project, including the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and El Colegio de Mexico. To ensure quality, the courses in the project must obtain certification from the Postgraduate Course Quality Project of the National Science and Technology Commission (Agencia Mexicana de Co-operación Internacional para el Desarrollo, 2019).

In 2013, the Mexican government promulgated the National Development Strategy 2013–2018 and identified five core development goals, two of which were ‘high-quality Mexican education’ and ‘Mexicans with social responsibility’. They are related to the development of international education and emphasise the cultivation of high-quality talents by improving education quality, making Mexico more competitive in the global market and promoting its economic development (Gobierno de México, 2013, 57–100). In the same year, the National Education Plan 2013–2018 was promulgated by the Secretariat of Public Education; the Plan emphasised that the new academic co-operation model supporting the internationalisation of higher education had promoted the more capable graduates who were pursuing the best postgraduate programmes in Mexico and all over the world (Secretaría de Educación Pública, 2013, p. 13). The Mexican government and higher education institutions continue to promote the internationalisation of higher education and hope to break through the ‘periphery’ of world research and knowledge dissemination as well as approach the ‘centre’.

2.3 Comparison of the Characteristics of the Internationalisation of Higher Education in China and Mexico

China and Mexico have different political systems and social cultures. However, looking at the development process of the internationalisation of higher education, the two countries share some similarities. First, the early development of the internationalisation of higher education in China and Mexico has a strong political feature. Back then, affected by diplomatic relations, China had generally launched international exchanges and co-operation programmes in the field of higher education for countries in the socialist camp; learning from the Soviet Union had become the main content of the internationalisation of higher education. As for Mexico, due to geopolitical relations, the US prevented the Soviet Union from infiltrating into Mexican ideology and threatening the security of its ‘backyard’ and the ‘Unified America’. The US began educational exchanges with Mexico and exported its ideology to Mexico.

Second, economic globalisation is a direct driving force for the accelerated development of the internationalisation of higher education in China and Mexico. For example, education falls under WTO’s ‘trade-in services’ category; when China entered the WTO in 2001, it committed to open its education sector to the outside world, including Sino-foreign co-operation in running schools and allowing free movement of people. China’s entrance to the WTO accelerated the development of the internationalisation of higher education (Zhang, 2002, pp. 12–18). In addition, China’s participation in global affairs has continued to deepen and the demand for international talents has also increased. The Chinese government has increased government scholarships and sent personnel to study abroad. During this period, China successively promulgated relevant regulations on personnel exchange in higher education, Sino-foreign co-operation in running schools, and studying in China to provide system guarantees for the internationalisation of China’s higher education. The situation in Mexico is similar to that in China. Mexico joined the NAFTA in 1994. With the signing of the agreement, the US-Mexico border has been further opened. With a large number of cheap Mexican labourers going northward, the number of Mexican students studying in the US has also been increasing.

Third, both China and Mexico regard ‘improving the quality of higher education’ as the primary idea in the development of the internationalisation of higher education. However, for both China and Mexico, this internationalisation is a double-edged sword. In order to improve the country’s competitiveness, the government spared no expense to provide scholarships for outstanding domestic students to study abroad. At the same time, the talent loss has weakened the country’s knowledge reserves, resulting in a more serious shortage of human resources (Holm-Nielsen, Thorn, Brunner and Balán, 2005, p. 39). Developed countries have become the ‘talent harvesters’ of developing countries like China and Mexico. Therefore, both the Chinese government and the Mexican government regard the improvement of education quality as the primary task of the internationalisation of higher education. China has successively proposed to build world-class universities through programmes such as the ‘985 Project’, ‘Building a Double First-Class’ initiative, and ‘Improving Quality and Efficiency’ task. Mexico has included ‘high-quality higher education services’ in its national education development plan.

Fourth, both China and Mexico are working hard to work with emerging markets in the field of higher education co-operation and regard each other as important partners. As the pace of China’s opening to the outside world continues to increase, economic and trade co-operation between China and Mexico is reaching the most productive period in history. Economic development will inevitably involve technological co-operation and cultural exchanges, in which talent is the key and education is the foundation (Gu, 2015, pp. 1–2). Therefore, China regards educational exchanges as an important means for the sustainable development of Sino-Mexican relations. In addition, Mexico’s long-term economic dependence on the US, its asymmetric integration into North American economies, and the influence of neoliberalism have threatened the sustainable growth of its economy (Otero, 2011, pp. 384–402). Therefore, besides maintaining the traditional educational co-operation relationship with Europe and the US, Mexico has begun to renew its educational layout and strengthened its co-operation with China and other emerging markets (Ávila, 2000, pp. 121–142).

3 Paths for Sino-Mexican Higher Education Exchanges and Co-operation

3.1 Mobility of People

China has always maintained a good relationship with Mexico in educational co-operation. In 1972, when China and Mexico established diplomatic relations, they signed an intergovernmental agreement on the exchange of foreign students. Subsequently, Mexico provided 20 government scholarships to China every year, which continued until the end of the 20th century. Many former Chinese diplomats in Latin America, Latin American researchers, and Spanish teachers in universities have benefited from this scholarship and studied in Mexico. It can be said that the Mexican government has trained the first batch of Spanish talent for China. In 2005, China and Mexico increased the number of scholarships. China provided 32 scholarships to Mexico each year, while Mexico provided 30 scholarships to China each year. In 2010, China and Mexico signed the Agreement between the Government of the People’s Republic of China and the United States of Mexico on the Mutual Recognition of Studies, Diplomas, and Degrees. During President Xi Jinping’s visit to Mexico in June 2013, the two sides signed the Joint Statement of the People’s Republic of China and the United States of Mexico, which provided Mexico with at least 300 government scholarships in the next three years (Xinhuanet, 2013). According to the statistics of the Department of International Co-operation and Exchanges of China’s Ministry of Education, the number of Mexican students studying in China has always topped the list of Latin American students studying in China. Taking 2018 as an example, the number of Mexican students studying in China is 1540, accounting for 15% of the total number of Latin American students in China (Department of International Co-operation and Exchanges of China’s MOE, 2018, pp. 288–289) (See Table 3). However, at the same time, it should be pointed out that the number of Mexican students studying in China is still very limited. In 2018, the number of Mexican students studying in China only accounts for 0.3% of the total number of foreign students studying in China (DICE, 2018, p. 148).

Table 3

Number of Mexican students studying in China from 2013 to 2018

Source: Compiled from Statistical Reports on International Students in China of the Department of International Co-operation and Exchanges of MOE

As a co-operation partner, Mexico introduced various policies and scholarships, so the number of Mexicans studying abroad continued to grow. The number of Mexican students studying abroad in 2000 was 15,818, and in 2016, it increased to 29,401 (UNESCO, 2020). In 2016, the top five popular destinations for overseas students were Spain, the US, France, Canada, and Germany, followed by Latin American countries with language advantages and geographical advantages such as Colombia, Argentina, and Chile. It is worth noting that since 2015, the number of Mexican students sent to China has been increasing and China has ranked among the top 10 destination countries for Mexican students (Asociación Nacional de Universidades e Instituciones de Educación Superior, 2017, P.34–64).

3.2 Overseas Co-operation Centre

At present, UNAM, Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, and other higher education institutions with better comprehensive strength have made exploratory attempts at cross-border education and established offices or cultural centres overseas. This is exemplified by the 14 overseas co-operation centres opened by UNAM in 9 countries around the world.

UNAM was the first university in Mexico to establish co-operation centres abroad. In 1944, UNAM co-operated with Trinity University in Texas to establish the first overseas co-operation centre. Over the past few decades, UNAM has successively established 14 overseas centres in the US, Canada, China, Spain, Costa Rica, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, and South Africa. As an overseas extension of its internationalisation strategy, overseas centres connect and co-operate with academic institutions and government departments in the host country to provide Spanish language courses and assessments for overseas personnel. The overseas centres also establish partnerships with well-known overseas institutions to promote double-degree programmes, encourage the flow of people, especially advance research co-operation between researchers and teachers, spread Mexican culture, and so on.

In 2012, UNAM and Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) jointly established an overseas research centre, the Mexican Research Centre, which became the first official institution of cultural exchanges and research opened by Mexico and other Spanish-speaking countries in China. Using the centre as a platform, UNAM has promoted academic exchanges and study abroad programmes between UNAM and many Chinese universities, including BFSU as well as universities in other Asian countries. At the same time, the centre regularly organises seminars, round tables, symposiums, and other academic seminars. It also provides courses on visual arts, music, literature, dance, drama, film, and other cultural and artistic topics related to Mexico and China to enhance cultural exchange as well as cognition between the two countries. In 2018, the centre held 75 events with more than 10,000 participants, making it the fastest-growing centre among the 14 overseas centres (Universidad Autónoma Nacional de México, 2018). The person in charge of the centre said that it has become an important platform for co-operation between UNAM and Asian institutions. Moreover, it has also helped to increase the number of personnel exchanges between Mexico and Asia (UNAM-CHINA, 2019). Meanwhile, in 2017, the Chinese Culture Research Centre (Centro de Estudios Chinos), jointly operated by BFSU and UNAM, was established at UNAM. The research centre is dedicated to bringing together the academic forces of Chinese studies as well as promoting the spread of Chinese culture in Mexico and Latin America through various forms and media such as educational exchanges, academic research, cultural publishing, international cultural creation, and online communication; it hopes to help the local people understand China, promote extensive co-operation in the fields of politics, economy, education, and cultural exchanges, and deepen the traditional friendship between the two countries.

3.3 Language Promotion

Language is a cultural resource; it is a carrier of culture and a sign of its existence. Language education has become an essential means of promoting national culture and drawing people from other countries closer. Language ability is critical for personnel working in Sino-Mexican co-operation. Therefore, language education is naturally deemed to be the foundation for Sino-Mexican exchanges and co-operation by both sides. China’s promotion of the Chinese language in Mexico and the development of Confucius Institutes are progressing rapidly. In 2006, the first Confucius Institute in Latin America was established in Mexico. By the year 2020, there are five Confucius Institutes in Mexico: the Confucius Institute in Mexico City organised by the El Instituto Cultural Chino Huaxia (ICCH), the Confucius Institute co-organised by the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE) and the Autonomous University of New Leo, Confucius Institute co-organised by Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU) and the Autonomous University of Yucatan, the Confucius Institute co-organised by Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU) and the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and the Confucius Institute co-organised by Beijing International Studies University (BISU) and Autonomous University of Chihuahua City (Hanban, 2019). In addition to the five Confucius Institutes mentioned above, the Metropolitan Autonomous University of Mexico, the Ibero-American University Leon, and the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education have also launched Chinese language training courses.

While the Chinese language is ‘going global’, China is also constantly exploring ways to ‘bring in’ the Spanish language. In addition to the Instituto Cervantes, which is led by the Spanish government and engages multiple Latin American countries, there has been an increase in the number of higher education institutions offering Spanish training programmes in China to meet the demand for Spanish-speaking talents. As of 2019, 96 educational institutions in China have included Spanish language courses, including 74 undergraduate schools, which is 8 times the number in 1999. The number of students enrolled in such programmes was around 20,000, more than 40 times the number in 1999 (Chinese National Social Science Network, 2019). In revising the General High School Curriculum Programme and Curriculum Standards for Chinese and Other Subjects (2017 edition), the Chinese Ministry of Education added Spanish as the first foreign language in the high school curriculum. It is for the first time that China has included Spanish in its secondary school curriculum (Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, 2017).

3.4 Human Resources, Vocational, and Technical Training

Since 2006, China and Mexico have been providing human resources as well as vocational and technical training. The training programmes cover agriculture, mining, trade, management, and other areas, with more than 20 training courses on agricultural technology, trade and investment, economic system reform, and diplomat culture. The ‘Public Administration Workshop for Civil Servants in LAC’ hosted by the National School of Administration has become a leading China-LAC training programme. It helps civil servants in Latin America, including Mexico, to deepen their understanding of China’s national conditions and public administration system. In 2015, China launched the ‘Future Bridge’ training programme for high-level exchanges between youths. It has been inviting 1,000 young future leaders from Latin America, including those from Mexico, to come to China each year from 2015 to 2024 for activities such as training sessions and study tours to increase their understanding of China’s politics, economy, national conditions, and culture.

In addition to human resource training, vocational and technical training is also a significant part of Sino-Mexican educational exchanges and co-operation. As more and more Chinese companies are investing in Mexico, developing infrastructure, building factories, and industrial parks, the shortage of skilled workers has become one of the main obstacles to business development. According to local regulations and long-term development needs, many Chinese companies attach great importance to the localisation of business models. For example, in Huawei’s branch in Mexico, local employees account for 90% of the total 1,400 plus employees. To meet the talent shortage, some small-scale pilot training projects have already been launched. Huawei set two training projects to cultivate key talents—‘ICT School’ and ‘Seeds for the Future’. ‘ICT School’ is jointly hosted by Huawei company and local universities as well as vocational and technical colleges to train local IT talents. In ‘Seeds for the Future’ project, outstanding students in communication engineering majors at Mexican higher educational institutions are selected to receive training in Huawei.

4 Trends in Sino-Mexican Co-operation and Exchanges in Higher Education

4.1 Efforts to Develop Relations with Emerging Markets

With a restructured international relations network, Mexico has been adjusting its nation-specific strategies for the internationalisation of higher education. While keeping the educationally advanced European countries and the US as its main partners, Mexico is focussing on building a higher education centre in Latin America and seeking co-operation with China and other emerging markets.

Under the influence of the traditional ‘North-South co-operation’ model, the US and European countries remain the major partners in Mexico’s internationalisation strategy. With its geographical advantage and prestige as a great power, the US has an enormous impact on Mexico’s higher education. Since the 1950s, US foundations such as the Rockefeller and the Ford Foundations have funded Mexican scientific and technological projects, facilitated the interdisciplinary integration of Mexican higher education institutions, and exchanged their knowledge, skills, and experience for scientific advancements. The NAFTA signed in 1994 provided new opportunities for educational co-operation between the US and Mexico. According to official Mexican statistics, in 2016, 17% of Mexican overseas students went to the US and 21% of the international students in Mexico were from the US. For a long time, the US was among the top five destinations and source countries for international students in Mexico (Asociación Nacional de Universidades e Instituciones de Educación Superior, 2017, p. 93). Moreover, European countries, especially Spain, had colonised Mexico for nearly three centuries. Therefore, Mexico’s higher education development has been influenced greatly by European factors. The shared historical origin makes the European Union (EU) ‘a natural ally’ to Mexico. The EU adopted the ‘high-level scholarships’ project specifically addressed to Latin American citizens to facilitate student mobility (ALBAN), launched exchange programmes for academic development (ALFA), the Erasmus+ project targeting at non-EU countries, Horizon 2020 for the cultivation of researchers, educational co-operation projects organised by Ibero-America, and a personnel exchange project by the Carolinas Foundation in Spain. With the project funds, Mexican students and researchers get more opportunities for studying and educational exchanges in EU countries. Mexico is a relatively educationally developed country in the Latin American region and is located at the border of North and South America. It has committed to becoming an academic hub in Latin America. In the 1980s, Mexico shared close educational exchanges and training activities with Latin American countries such as Argentina, Chile, and Colombia. At the end of the 1990s, Mexico signed free trade agreements with the US and Canada, entering the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). As a result, it prioritised ‘North-South educational co-operation’ and attached less emphasis on educational co-operation with other Latin American countries. Entering the 21st century, Mexico, aware of the unsustainability of its excessive dependence on the US for development, has relocated its focus to Latin American countries for higher education co-operation. It is co-operating with Brazil, Paraguay, and other educationally advanced countries in the fields of education and science to facilitate the exchange and mobility of students and high-end personnel. Moreover, it has strengthened its educational assistance to Central American countries, providing scholarships for students and researchers from that region to further their studies in Mexico. The move helps Central American areas elevate their education quality and social inclusiveness.

With the rapid development of emerging countries and their science and education industries, Mexico began to attach more importance to co-operation with emerging countries such as China. In 2003, Mexico established a strategic partnership with China, followed by an increase in Chinese and Mexican governmental scholarships. The UNAM and BFSU co-founded a Mexican Research Centre and a Chinese Research Centre to facilitate the development of Sino-Mexican relations. The Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education set up offices in Shanghai and Beijing as well as opened Chinese and Latin America Research Centre in Fudan University. The Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban) established five Confucius Institutes in Mexico to teach Chinese language and spread Chinese culture. As China’s international status continues to rise and Sino-Mexican relations keep heating up, co-operation between the two countries in higher education will continue to expand both in scale and depth. According to Mexico’s statistics in 2016, China became the 10th top destination country for Mexican overseas students and the 6th largest source of international students in Mexico. UNAM set up its first Asian centre in China and multiple Mexican universities have co-established research centres with Chinese universities.

From China’s perspective, the establishment of bilateral and multilateral strategic dialogue mechanisms such as the China-CELAC Forum (CCF) and BRI provides docking platforms for Sino-Mexican educational exchanges and co-operation. The Chinese government is increasing the number of scholarships in Latin American region; in the China-Latin American and Caribbean Countries Co-operation Plan (2015–2019) and Joint Plan of Action for Co-operation on Priority Areas (2019–2021), it is proposed that China would provide governmental scholarships to 6,000 candidates in Latin America between and 2015–2019 and 2019–2021, respectively (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, 2008). Meanwhile, as Mexico is located at the crossroads of North and South America, China has always regarded it as the educational hub of Latin America; it has set up its only Latin American educational centre in Mexico, echoing the latter’s wish to do the same.

4.2 Promoting Vocational Education Co-operation

With a series of supportive policies of CCF, such as China-LAC Special Loan for Infrastructure, China-LAC Industrial Co-operation Investment Fund, China- LAC Co-operation Fund, and China-LAC Co-operation New ‘1+3+6’ Framework, more and more Chinese enterprises will enter Latin America. Talent crises will become more prominent because self-sufficient talent cultivation within the enterprise is not a permanent solution. The urgent need for applied talent provides an important opportunity for Sino-Mexican co-operation in vocational education. Chinese vocational colleges and schools need to leverage their edges and use the quality resources of those ‘going global’ Chinese enterprises. They should consider the local economic and social development needs as well as co-operate with local universities, vocational colleges, and enterprises in education and training, especially in key areas of automobile manufacturing, information and communication technology, engineering machinery, transportation, commerce, trade, and logistics. With regard to the conditions and progress of infrastructure projects and production lines funded by Chinese enterprises, Chinese vocational colleges are encouraged to co-operate and set up training programmes in Mexico or open the ‘Luban Workshop’ to implement large-scale talent training. To cultivate high-end talent in information technology and logistics, Chinese vocational colleges can recruit Mexican students to study in China and send them back to projects involving Chinese-funded enterprises. Co-operation in vocational education will help cultivate local talents for Chinese-funded enterprises and combine ‘project investment’ with ‘technological export’ to provide intellectual support to Sino-Mexican economic and trade co-operation.

4.3 Improving the Degree Certification System

There are still difficulties with degree certification and verification. The high degree of autonomy in the courses and curricula in Mexican higher education makes them inequivalent to those of foreign educational institutions. This difference greatly affects the international accreditation of Mexican university majors and degrees. Furthermore, although Mexican higher education institutions have the right to confer degrees, without uniform criteria, the credit transfer procedure is dependent on actually implementing the co-operation and is decided by both parties. For example, China has signed an agreement between the Government of the People’s Republic of China and the United States of Mexico on the Mutual Recognition of Studies, Diplomas, and Degrees and clarified the educational structures, respectively. However, when it comes to mutual degree certification, the Ministry of Education still needs to collate and investigate the higher education institutions. The process adds greater uncertainty to the still unfamiliar educational co-operation between the two countries. To conclude, China and Mexico should further improve the degree certification system to facilitate co-operation between their higher education institutions.

4.4 Security and Safety

Security in Mexico has always been a source of concern. Many countries have issued ‘travel warnings’ for Mexico due to frequent drug dealing, kidnappings, murders, and robberies. In the National Survey of Urban Public Security conducted by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography, 72.9% of the respondents feel that the city they live in is unsafe (INEGI, 2020). The high crime rate is the result of several changeable and unchangeable factors. The location of Mexico is an unchangeable factor; its borderline and coastal areas are on the drug transportation corridor. However, unbalanced economic development, youth drop-out, and unemployment are changeable factors. Mexico has introduced a series of reforms regarding education, telecommunications, and energy in the hope of eliminating crimes at its root and improving its global image in terms of social security. Therefore, the Chinese embassy and the Office of Education Affairs in Mexico should improve the management of personnel movement and provide educational services to help overseas students and visiting scholars to raise their awareness of safety and to better adapt to the culture.

5 Conclusions

The following conclusions can be drawn from the review of Sino-Mexican higher education exchanges and co-operation:

First, in terms of the internationalisation of higher education, compared with Mexico, China has a relatively more complete system for development with a higher market share and richer experience. However, China and Mexico are suffering from ‘educational deficit’; they both have more outbound students than inbound international students.

Second, China and Mexico regard each other as important partners in higher education co-operation. While furthering co-operation with the US and the European countries, Mexico is also starting to emphasise its partnership with China. At the same time, China is gradually exploring new areas for opening up its education sector. As an important emerging market, Mexico is a key partner of China in building a community of shared future for mankind.

Third, Sino-Mexican higher education co-operation is still in its infancy with enormous prospects and potential. Both sides continue to strengthen bilateral co-operation in personnel mobility, scientific research, and vocational education and training. However, in the process of co-operation, practical problems such as the lack of institutional capacity, incomplete degree certification system, and social security should also be addressed.

Dr HU Yiyun is a lecturer at the Institute of International and Comparative Education, Beijing Normal University. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Spanish Language and Literature from Beijing International Studies University, and a master’s degree in Intercultural Education from University of Huelva, and PhD in Comparative Education from Beijing Normal University. She has worked in the Confucius Institute Headquarters (2007–2010), and has been sent to the Cultural Office of the State of Aguascalientes, Mexico, and the Hispanic-Asian Center of the University of Huelva, Spain, to teach Chinese as a foreign language. In addition, she has worked as a Spanish teacher in Beijing International Studies University (2010–2015). Dr. Hu’s research interests include international education, development education and education in Latin America. She has presided over and participated in more than 10 national, provincial and ministerial level projects. Her doctoral thesis was funded by the Gu Mingyuan Educational Research and Development Foundation (2017–2018). She has published more than ten articles in academic journals such as Comparative Education Review and Higher Education Exploration.