Monterrey: a potential market for student mobility and institutional cooperation
31 Jul 2009
‘Monterrey is a potential market for student mobility and institutional cooperation.’ This was the main conclusion of the research report produced by Kristine Farla during her stay at Nuffic Neso Mexico as a project assistant.
On the basis of her research, Kristine’s main conclusion was that there are good opportunities to increase student mobility and institutional cooperation in Monterrey. In general, Nuffic Neso agrees with her: Nuffic Neso’s experiences in Monterrey have demonstrated that it is indeed a very interesting market.
Nuffic Neso attends fairs in Monterrey 4 or 5 times a year and has observed great enthusiasm for studying abroad. Furthermore, the quality and numbers of students in Monterrey are generally higher than in other cities.
These differences were highlighted during Nuffic Neso’s branding campaign. Nuffic Neso visited four cities in Mexico as part of the campaign. Of all the visits, Monterrey was by far the most successful. Attendance at the ‘Study in Holland’ presentation there was twice that at the presentation in Guadalajara, demonstrating the keen interest Monterrey students have in studying abroad.
Nuffic Neso student survey
To assess whether or not Monterrey is an interesting market, Kristine Farla evaluated the quality of the students, student attitudes and behaviour, and demographic and economic indicators. One of the instruments used in this study was the Nuffic Neso student survey. The results showed that Monterrey scored very positively on all the indicators evaluated.
With regard to institutional cooperation, Nuffic Neso can confirm the conclusions of the report. There is considerable scope for increasing institutional cooperation between Dutch institutions and the universities in Monterrey: representatives of the international offices at the four main universities there are indeed well known in the international education community in Mexico and dedicated to increasing their universities’ international presence.
They have experience in internationalization and they have other, more specific, wishes. Not only are they looking to increase the number of international agreements, they also have a concrete idea of the kind of cooperation they are looking for.
To sum up, Nuffic Neso Mexico agrees with Kristine Farla’s conclusions that Monterrey is a very interesting market and there are many attractive options for institutional cooperation.
Please contact Nuffic Neso Mexico for more information on the educational market in Monterrey.