Higher Education Regionalization in the Northern Triangle of Central America: Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras

Abstract

This paper uses Knight's (2013) regionalization of higher education framework - The Functional, Organizational and Political Approaches (FOPA) Model - to better understand the climate for regional engagement between higher education institutions (HEIs) in the Northern Triangle (NT) of Central America: El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. The NT region is mired in a variety of economic, social and political challenges that have contributed to mass migration north to Mexico and the United States. We contend that higher education can contribute to the future development of the region. One approach to explore the potentional of higher education engagement is to examine the level of collaboration between institutions within the region, between the NT and the greater Central America region and with external partners such as the United States and the European Union. While we argue that regional partnerships rely heavily on North-South collaborations, we also contend that the conditions exist in Central America for further development of a more integrated higher education community.