The US-Mexico Shared Mobility Challenge

In the context of higher education mobility in North America, there is an excellent climate at the highest levels of government to foster increased academic mobility and to seek new approaches to make this happen.  The ambitious plan of the US government’s 100 K in the Americas Program is to have 100,000 US student studying in Latin American countries and 100,000 Latin American students studying in the United States by the year 2020.  Currently approximately 40,000 US student study abroad in the Americas and 60,000 Latin American Students study in the US every year.  The Mexican government has outlined what some might consider an even more ambitious plan to have 100,000 Mexican students studying in the US and 50,000 US students studying in Mexico by the year 2018.  The intent is definitely within government to foster increased mobility.  In order to make this happen however, dramatic change is what is needed.
Currently there are just under 14,000 Mexican students studying in the US every year, and just under 4,000 US students studying in Mexico every year.  The Institute for International Education’s Open Doors data from their 2013 report also demonstrates the current trends:

Mexican Students in the USA	US Students in Mexico

While interest among Mexicans in studying in the US appears to be regaining strength, there is a disturbing trend demonstrating that interest among US students in studying in Mexico continues to wane. CONAHEC's brand new Mobility Incubator program will help to address this challenge by putting the right people together in order to create innovative mobility opportunities to move more students, faculty and staff among our higher education institutions. We welcome your comments and suggestions.