Opening up to international activities is a priority focus for institutions in the Central American region, and they are often overlooked in the search for partners from abroad in favour of larger Southern American Players.
In this sense, INCA project aimed to contribute as far as possible through a small-scale initiative to the development of international relations and international relations offices in HEIs in the selected Central American countries (Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala), with a view to improving many aspects of the university international activities, such as international project participation, reception and sending of students, teachers or researchers, etc.
The main project activities were focused on increase the knowledge in the field of international relations management; enhancement of their management and performance quality; improvement in the understanding of their role with regard to knowledge, to students, to the environment; enhancement of their community leadership; consolidations of their ties with other universities; new directional strategic thinking; self-evaluation techniques, knock-on effects through new contracts; and prestige.
In terms of tangible results and outputs the project created managerial expertise transfer tools, such are training workshops and a Guide on how manage an International Relation Office; Internationalisation plans; IRO’s web pages; appropriate IT infrastructure; project website and a international Network of HEIs that operates in the Central American region.
