Two and a half years after its creation, the Mexico-United States Bilateral Forum on Higher Education, Innovation and Research (FOBESSI) has broadened opportunities for educational exchanges, scientific research partnerships and cross-border innovation. Its primary focus is on disadvantaged demographic groups, in order to ensure greater economic and social inclusion.
The goal of FOBESSI is to help both countries develop a 21st-century workforce for their mutual economic prosperity and sustainable social development, to make North America into a competitive and dynamic knowledge-based region.
FOBESSI seeks to establish and strengthen binational knowledge networks by opening research and innovation centers in both countries.
Through FOBESSI, Mexico and the United States bring together governments, the higher-education community, the private sector and civil society to help enhance the workforce, for educational and research cooperation and to encourage greater access to quality education, especially in the sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
In 2016, FOBESSI will focus its efforts on 22 executive actions that further its four principal lines of action, which are to:
- Increase academic mobility
- Strengthen language acquisition
- Promote the development of the workforce
- Promote joint research and innovation
The Mexican government and FOBESSI created the Proyecto 100,000 program to substantially increase student and academic mobility and English-language learning and to engage in knowledge networking between Mexico and the United States. The private sector, academia and civil society are all involved.
Proyecto 100,000 seeks to position Mexico as the third country with the most students in the United States, which is comparable to our trade levels. By 2018, the program hopes to have 100,000 Mexican students studying in the United States and 50,000 American students studying in Mexico.
