U.S., Mexico strive for more student exchanges
TIJUANA — Without a visa to cross the border, Tonalli Galicia first learned English by practicing on tourists. Now the 22-year-old electrical engineering student is in the United States for the first time and preparing to receive formal instruction on a U.S. college campus.
"I asked for somewhere far away, and I got it," said Galicia, who starts a three-week language immersion program Monday at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn. He's not afraid of cold weather, and is eager to see snow, he said in an interview on the Tijuana campus of Baja California's largest public university, Universidad Autonoma de Baja California.
Galicia is one of 7,500 Mexican university students and teachers awarded scholarships by their federal government this winter for short-term English language courses across the United States. They are scattered at some 160 colleges and universities, with a group of 260 from different parts of Mexico currently in San Diego.
Despite a shared 1,954-mile border and booming international trade, surprisingly few Mexicans study in the United States: Under two percent of international students at U.S. college and universities are from Mexico — fewer than 15,000 during the current academic year, according to the Open Doors Report released last month by the Institute of International Education. Their numbers are a far cry from top-ranked China, with more than 274,000, and lower even than countries with smaller populations, such as Korea, Vietnam and Taiwan.
Conversely, U.S. students going abroad are far more likely to study in England, France and Italy — or even in Argentina and Brazil — than in Mexico.
The trends hold true locally as well: the UABC receives more exchange students from Europe than the United States. Of some 1,000 students who are enrolled in study-abroad programs at the University of California San Diego only three are in Mexico; and of about 4,000 international students studying at the school's La Jolla campus, only 47 are from Mexico.
Efforts at changing these dynamics are being launched on both sides of the border, through exchange programs, scholarships, and funds for cross-border collaborations among universities. The University of California system launched a UC-Mexico initiative early this year aimed re-engaging with Mexico. In July, Gov. Jerry Brown signed an agreement with the Mexican government aimed at increasing collaboration in higher education.
Here along the San Diego-Baja California border, schools such as UC San Diego, Southwestern College, the UABC and the private Baja California university CETYS are working with their countries' consulates to explore new cross-border internship possibilities with businesses and nonprofit organizations in the region.
The idea is that such cross-border programs can eventually help increase the integration and competitiveness of the North American region: "If we can get students who speak each others' languages and know how to work together, we have a stronger future together," said Stephanie Syptak-Ramnath, minister-counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City.
"In order to innovate, we need research," said Remedios Gómez-Arnau, head of the Mexican Consulate in San Diego. "We need the researchers to work together, to learn the language of the other country."
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