American students are ignoring educational possibilities in Mexico, a diplomat said, and by doing so maybe forfeiting a place in the global future.
Remedios Gomez Arnau, Consulate General of Mexico in San Diego, pledged to work with Southwestern College to provide meaningful higher education exchanges between the U.S. and Mexico. Her visit was part of a Mexican initiative to win back American students dissuaded from studying in Mexico due to drug war violence.
Arnau said about 14,000 students from Mexico study in the U.S., while only 4,000 U.S. students study in Mexico.
“We cannot be living in a globalized world where we have global production, global trade, global communication, global travel and we don’t have global education,” she said. “We don’t promote international education.”
Mexican President Peña Nieto and U.S. Barack President Obama established the High Level Economic Dialogue, a platform to share global strategies, including international education.
A goal of both governments is to increase American students in Mexico to 50,000 and Mexican students in the U.S. to 100,000 by 2018, said Arnau.
U.S. Consul General in Tijuana Andrew S.E. Erickson said American Anglos are rejecting Mexican society, while Mexicans in Baja California embrace America.
“The Mexican-American community in Baja is incredibly open and connected with this side of the border educationally, intellectually, socially, people cross over all the time,” Erickson said. “What’s a little scary for me as an Anglo looking south. We’re not so open to Mexico.”
American students studying in Mexico has declined by two percent this year, he added.
SWC administration intends to reinstate field trips for students into Mexico on a case-by-case basis. Mexican Consulate in San Diego gave SWC $15,000 in scholarships to support further international education. SWC President Dr. Melinda Nish said she supports integration.
“The future is greater integration, not separation,” she said. “It’s how we work together.”
Erickson said the murder rate in Tijuana has increased again since 2010 due to the heavy narcotics trafficking. Arnau insisted that Tijuana is safe.
“Unfortunately the perception is more important than the reality,” she said.
Nish said SWC will expand the Otay Mesa Center, San Ysidro Center and monitor development related to a new Otay Mesa border crossing.
Dr. Angelica Suarez, SWC Vice President of Student Affairs, said the college would be a key player in the effort to expand educational cooperation between the bordering nations.
“I think we certainly can help in terms of meeting the needs of the labor force of our students with the degrees they’re obtaining,” she said.