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The article aims at exploring the challenges and possibilities of cooperation of higher education in a Latin American social, political and cultural context that faces historical difficulties of integration, as well as the potential contribution of academic cooperation for global citizenship.

The paper presents a general overview of networks and international centers of academic cooperation of higher education in Latin America. The analysis comprises objectives, countries, stakeholders, activities, projects and scope. The study is based on literature on internationalization, regional integration and the development of higher education, as well as on empirical gathered with networks/centers and key actors in the field. This study was carried out as a mixed qualitative method design. Firstly, a systematic review of a literature corpus of studies produced by Latin-American scholars was performed. Semi-structured interviews were then carried out with a group of scholars who are members of networks.

The findings include a review of the role of higher education in a politically fragmented reality, a panorama of major networks and international centers of academic cooperation with emphasis on internationalization of higher education, as well as their connections. The are highlighted examples of successful initiatives of cooperation and, based on interviews, there is presented a preliminary view on cooperation and trust building from professionals in higher education in Latin America.

In the last decades, with the growing interest and need for internationalizing higher education, many universities have organized or joined networks and international centers. The article will contribute for mutual knowledge of these spaces, their shortcomings and potentials, thus creating conditions for dialogue among them, as well as with universities in other continents.

This paper aims to identify any relation between the strategies defined in Chilean higher education institutions strategic planning and the compliance with both national accreditation criteria and the dimensions of an integrated internationalization approach, allowing to determine if standards and funding policies shape internationalization processes.

Strategic plans of 29 universities were analyzed using a nonexperimental qualitative–quantitative methodology. The institutions were categorized according to the scores obtained through the revision of objectives, aims and goals of their strategic plans. Key elements of integrated internationalization were used to identify the assimilation of such dimensions and the actions executed. Data were collected through documentary revision and scrutinized through content analysis using two dichotomous instruments. Results were examined using principal component and cluster analysis.

Chilean universities’ internationalization processes aim to fulfill national accreditation criteria but do not follow a comprehensive internationalization model, as shown by a 53.2% of compliance with the number of elements relating to internationalization accreditation criteria and a 27% of adherence with an integrated internationalization approach. Institutions are slowly evolving, blending isolated internationalization strategic elements and focusing on external guidelines.

This study was performed through documentary analysis. The derived conclusions could further be complemented through interviews or the inclusion of institutional self-assessment reports for institutional accreditation purposes.

This paper demonstrates why Chilean universities need to take a qualitative step toward implementing an integrated internationalization approach, to make an even more tangible contribution to their internal and external communities.