The Renewable Energy industrial sectors in Brazil and Colombia are going through a rapid modernization and expansion period as a result of intensive investments from national and global international companies. Similar processes are expected to take place in Cuba in coming years. There is a sharply growing demand for a new type of qualified graduates in this sector in Latin American countries with deeper professional educational background in Renewable Energy Engineering with the quality similar to that provided in EU Universities. Brazilian, Colombian and Cuban Universities participating in this project, run numerous Bachelor and Master level courses developed by themselves, including in Renewable Energy Engineering (REE). Thus, the aim of this project is not a creation of new Bachelor or Master courses but a radical improvement of existing ones developed by Latin America University academics. To achieve the goal of improving quality of teaching and aligning with EU Universities, the current content of modules and teaching methods in REE modules should undergo deep modernisation processes with the assistance and input of EU universities which have a strong background and experience of teaching in these subjects. Additionally, problems identified in the work with PhD students in partner Universities are that in their study students are narrowly focused on local practices. Therefore, main activities of this project will be:1. Modernisation of core modules in REE taught to Bachelor and Master students to the level of quality corresponding to the EU standard requirements. 2. Improvement of Skills Development of PhD students in IT, communication, self-assessment, presenting and motivating and competencies for better integration into international research community.The major outcome of the project will be better professional knowledge and skills of Bachelor, Master and PhD students in REE conforming with European standards.

"The starting point of the project was the standard and widely accepted definition of internationalization as ""the process of integrating an international dimension into the teaching, research and service functions of the institution"". In our opinion, this definition does not capture the essence of a process whose ultimate goal should be to integrate the institution into the emerging global knowledge production and transfer network. In this respect DHIP conceived internationalization of HEIs as the process of integrating the institution and its stakeholders into a globalizing world. This process calls for a change in existing structures, operating modes and mind-set in order to allow the institution as a whole to join and contribute to the emerging global knowledge and learning network. The DHIP project has allowed the Latin American (LA) partners to increase their capacity of managing an internationalization process effectively and to generate a spill-over effect on the three target countries through the developed good practices and tools. This has been achieved thanks to a new tool, the Internationalization Enhancement Plan (IEP). IEP enables an integrated approach, based on a strategic vision of internationalization and on a multidimensional, integrated and recursive operating plan containing process improvement actions, services, communication tools and marketing skills. IEP also identifies milestones, deliverables, mid-term results, expected results and monitoring, and evaluation criteria.Despite the pandemic forced the Consortium to reschedule some tasks, all the activities planned in the proposal were realized:WP1: N. 7 Territorial Fora held; N. 9 video conference rooms implemented in LA;WP2: N. 9 IEPs implemented and officially approved with formal administrative act; N. 3 LA tutoring meetings;WP3: N. 9 organizational redesign of the IROs (and N. 9 IROs equipped); the development of training activities on internationalization (N. 9 Training Webinars and N. 3 study visits in Europe); N. 27 Multicultural and social events realized; N. 78 international agreements signed;WP4: quality plan definition and continuous quality monitoring; development of the Impact Evaluation System;WP5: DHIP Guidelines on internationalization in higher education; N. 18 Twinning Events; N.1 Dissemination Event and N. 1 Final Conference. WP6: effective project and financial management; constant monitoring of activities and results; continuous sharing of information. DHIP achieved the following specific objectives.1 - Developed and/or improved effective HEI internationalization strategies for each LA partner consistent with the ECHE principles and priorities through the design and implementation of IEPs.2 - Increased and/or consolidated a network of contacts and regional alliances with peers and with other institutions or associations for mobility, academic exchanges, including the use of Tuning tools, to effect the shift to student centred learning, and experience with the Latin American Reference Credit - CLAR.3 - Developed soft skills and transversal competencies and provided specialist training on strategic topics for the implementation of the IEP.4 - Developed participation, communication and networking tools able to connect HEI internationalization policies with the needs/vocations of the local production systems.5 - Promoted the dissemination of institutional strategies for internationalization based on good practices among the Latin American HEIs community and supported the development of strategic alliances with other LA and EU HEIs and the inclusion of communities of knowledge and of practice that boosted the viability of IEPs and generated new initiatives and activities."

EQUaM LA, which targets universities and quality assurance agencies in Colombia, Argentina, Nicaragua and Panama, aims to support internal university procedures for quality management, and link them to enhanced processes for the recognition of foreign degrees and credits. This will be done via the collaboration of universities and national regulatory bodies, which are shaping quality assurance and accreditation systems. The project targets both quality assurance units and international cooperation staff in partner universities, as well as national agencies for quality assurance. One of its main outcomes is a jointly-developed ‘QA Tool-kit’ for universities. Through its activities (training events, development of the Tool-Kit and testing of the Tool-Kit in university partners), it will enhance internal QA structures and link them to international cooperation structures. This will simultaneously improve internal QA management and also help to increase international recognition of degrees and credits across borders in LA. The fact that the project includes four different LA countries in Central and South America attests to its regional dimension and ambition to support objectives of the Latin American Higher Education Space (ENLACES) in which QA and recognition are fundamentals.

CAMINOS deepened the Latin American Higher Education Space by improving the capacity of universities, associations and networks to enhance, promote and manage regional Latin American student and staff mobility. Specifically, the project developed a common mobility management model (defined by a Handbook) to this effect, premised upon and linking existing Latin American bi/multi-lateral mobility programmes and providing guidance on managing mobility. The project had three essential phases:1)A research phase for mapping a) existing Latin American mobility schemes and their management practices and rules, b) the actors and universities that participate in them and manage them2)A development phase for generating a Handbook that provided concrete advice to universities and networks/associations on how to enhance and promote mobility in the region. Focus groups on topics such as mobility management, credit transfer, recognition, institutional partnerships and joint degrees were organised to help draft the Handbook. In addition, study visits of Latin American partners to European universities were organised, to look at institutional case studies on these topics. 3)A pilot phase, whereby the Handbook was applied by both the partner associations/networks and the partner universities. Each partner implemented a pilot project that corresponded to at least one aspect of a mobility management ‘process’ listed in the Handbook. This included building a website for promoting mobility in the region, installing a new database for mobility, organizing international internships and summer schools in the LA region, etc. Coaching was provided by European partners to support the pilots. The project responded to the fact that LA regional mobility is a growing priority as it fosters academic cooperation and regional harmonisation. CAMINOS also reflected the interest to better promote ‘structured’ mobility and staff mobility. The project involved universities from Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile and Ecuador, as well as university associations from these countries. Additional actors and related E+ projects were involved in project activities to ensure wider ownership and synergies. A final project conference was positioned as a larger event for generating ‘clustering’ and synergies between beneficiaries of E+ projects in LA, dealing with themes related to internationalisation, mobility, recognition and joint programmes. The project has a direct impact in the LA partner universities in terms of their ability to manage mobility and generate awareness for the importance of regional mobility. In addition, the associations in the project were able to launch and and conduct a first assessment of a regional programme for mobility – ‘PILA’ – which allows for mutual exchange between Argentina, Colombia and Mexico, and should be expanded to other countries in the near future.