Program Office: Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education

CFDA Number: 84.116N
Program Type: Discretionary/Competitive Grants
Also Known As: Institutional Cooperation and Student Mobility in Higher Education Among the United States, Canada, and Mexico, U.S.-Canada-Mexico Program, North American Program, FIPSE

The program promotes a student-centered, North American dimension to education and training in a wide range of academic and professional disciplines that complement existing forms of bilateral and trilateral exchange programs among Mexico, Canada, and the United States. Consortia are funded for four years with the first year of funding dedicated to establishing consortium agreements or memoranda of understanding among institutions in the participating countries.

Projects are intended to:

• Encourage cooperation and exchange among higher education institutions in the United States, Mexico, and Canada;
• Increase the knowledge of the languages, cultures, and institutions of these three countries;
• Increase the quality of human resources development in the three countries;
• Explore ways to prepare students to work throughout North America; and
• Augment student mobility, through mutual recognition and portability of credits and by developing joint curricula and degrees.

The Program for North American Mobility in Higher Education is a grant competition run cooperatively by the governments of the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The purpose of this competition is to promote a student-centered, North American dimension to education and training in a wide range of academic and professional disciplines. The Program will fund collaborative efforts in the form of consortia consisting of at least two academic institutions from each country. The funding period will be for up to four years.

The Program for North American Mobility in Higher Education fosters student exchange within the context of multilateral curricular development. Students benefit from having an added "North American" curriculum and cultural dimension to their studies through combination of trilateral curricular innovation and study abroad.

The Program is administrated collectively by the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, U.S. Department of Education (FIPSE); Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC); and in Mexico by the Secretariat of Public Education (Dirección de Desarollo Universitario, Secretaría de Educación Pública - SEP).

Conceived in the spirit of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the first grant competition for this Program was held in 1995. The principles of this program are based on recommendations that emerged from the Guadalajara Conference of 1996, the Vancouver Communiqué 1993 and the Wingspread Declaration of 1992, which called for strengthened cooperation in higher education, research, and training among the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

The Program aims to improve the quality of human resource development in the three countries and to explore ways to prepare students for work throughout North America through -

• the mutual recognition and portability of academic credits among North American institutions;
• the development of shared, common, or core curricula among North American institutions;
• the acquisition of the languages and exposure to the cultures of the United States, Canada, and Mexico;
• the development of student apprenticeships or other work related experiences; and
• an increased cooperation and exchange among academic personnel among North American institutions.

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