By María Josefina Arce
The Fourteenth International Congress on Higher Education, University 2024, an event that brought together more than 2,000 delegates from around the world to exchange experiences and opinions on the role that higher education is called to play in the transformation of society, closed its doors in Havana.
The event occupies an essential place in the efforts to carry forward the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, as the centers of higher education can contribute a great deal of knowledge to the achievement of this goal.
Universidad 2024 has also opened the way to continue expanding and strengthening professional collaboration between educational institutions from different countries, leading to an improvement in teaching, its adaptation to current times and greater access to their classrooms.
Thus, several cooperation agreements have been signed during these days. This is the case of Cuba and Russia, two nations that maintain a strategic alliance in various fields for the benefit of both peoples.
Now 24 agreements have been signed between the two countries, which aim to cover new areas of exchange such as digitalization, innovation and artificial intelligence, considered fundamental for the future of education and scientific research.
Among them are those signed between the University of Camagüey, Ignacio Agramonte Loynaz, and six Russian institutions, such as the Moscow University of Technology, the University of Transport and the University of St. Petersburg.Cuban Minister of Higher Education, Walter Baluja García, highlighted that collaboration in this field between Cuba and Russia has experienced a remarkable growth in recent years.In fact, these new agreements signed in Havana, in the context of University 2024, are in addition to the more than one hundred already in place to transform higher education in the two states.Brazil is another of the nations with which Cuba signed cooperation agreements, thus resuming the traditional teaching exchange aimed at promoting mutual social, economic and cultural development.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's return to the presidency of the South American giant in January 2023 marked a relaunching of bilateral ties and made collaboration and joint work a priority for the two nations, united by strong ties of friendship between their peoples.Universidad 2024 left multiple satisfactions. Necessary debates, exchange of experiences and open doors for a broader cooperation that contributes to the socioeconomic advancement of nations.
