Successful previous LA and EU HE cooperation revealed differences between HESystems, academic recognition principles and practices. A long path is still ahead in terms of streamlined mobility recognition with fair credit transfer and grade conversion. Most LA countries have no credit system nationally applying to HEIs and the majority has regulations to frame mobility abroad, but handles recognition on individual basis and equivalence without grading is very common, negatively impacting students. RecMat joins partners from AR, BR and EU with the core aim of contributing to promote mobility between EU and LA, by reducing barriers related to academic recognition and building LA HEIs capacity to implement a fairer recognition process. Partners will work at two levels, linking the policy and practical dimensions behind academic recognition. Unlike previous initiatives, RecMat targets not only International Officers, but teachers who are the main decision makers in LA HEIs in what recognition is concerned, who are distant from Bologna rationale and usually show high resistance to recognition. This will be achieved by involving teachers in blended-training and in piloting concrete case studies, to evidence practical successful processes. Through a peer-to-peer approach, RecMat will raise teachers’ awareness about the importance of ensuring full recognition and stimulating fair grade conversion. RecMat activities will capacitate HEIs to formally frame recognition and build a linkage with IT teams by providing training to IT staff and enabling LA HEIs to outline concrete technical solutions to ease recognition. Through the organisation of public (inter-)national events and policy forums, RecMat will bring the topic to wide discussion, encouraging a high number of HEIs to adopt similar processes and sharing with them the project's innovative outcomes (MOOC, Digital Compendium and Conclusions Paper) towards the improvement and transparency of academic recognition processes.

Against the background of increasing quantities of waste from electrical & electronic equipment (e-waste), lacking recycling infrastructure for adequate treatment and lacking know how in this field, the project LaWEEda aims at strengthening Universities in Brazil and Nicaragua in their education in the field of e-waste management and entrepreneurship and collaboration with businesses. The LaWEEda consortium consists of 3 European universities, 4 Universities and 4 business partners in the target region.The project aims at improving the dialogue between research and practice by establishing regional Collaboration & Training Centres serving as knowledge hubs and interface, thus enhancing the quality of educational products. Further this improves the employability of graduates at University level and of practicioners at CPD-level and supports sustainable entrepreneurship. Developing and implementing new and innovative educational products along with the establishment of two Collaboration & Training Centres (one in Brazil and Nicaragua each) will lead to the following results:• Qualified graduates from Universities in e-waste management• Provision of trained and skilled workers as well as persons with entrepreneurial spirit and skills to start own businesses• Increasing employability of graduates and practitioners, inclusion of informal recyclers as socially deprived parts of society, improving social cohesion• Equipping education and training providers with modern teaching tools and approaches An improved information basis on available and lacking education will be created, the Collaboration & Trainings Centres developed, new and innovative educational products for academic use and for CPD evolved.For the LaWEEda Centres business plans were developed in order to ensure sustainability. Through the course of the project a wider network of stakeholders in e-waste management was established, aiming at a scaling up of the activities to other parts of Latin America.

"The project presented pretends to create a Regional Observatory for Quality and Equity in Higher Education in Latin America (ORACLE). The project is based on the assumption that there is no possible quality without equity. For it, the project involves the participation of 35 universities from 15 countries from Latin America and 5 European countries. It will be developed for 36 months from 2016 to 2019.ORACLE is an innovative project although it seeks to give continuity and sustainability to 4 ALFA.3 projects supported by the EU. In order to achieve an optimal function of the Observatory, previously, it is going to be built a Quality and Equity Unit (UCE) in each one of the 30 universities that participate in the project. These UCE's will propose and design actions, policies and strategies of institutional quality assurance and equity. Likewise, these institutional units will operate in a reticulated way and they will be the starter point and the main emphasis of ORACLE. The creation of new structures will encourage the Organizational Development of the Higher Education institutions of ""la Región"".The groups in vulnerable situation that ORACLE's Observatory is focused on are a total of eight: indigenous people, women, people with disabilities, non- traditional students, population with very low HDI, immigrants, ethnic minority groups and citizens from rural areas. ORACLE aims to provide an integral and integrated service and, unlike other initiatives, it is not exclusively circumscribed on the academic development of the students, but it will also work with people in vulnerable situations among all levels (professors, students, administrative staff and managers) and all institutional functions: teaching, research and management."

The Latin American region lacks a program that has a strong international character and to focus on the entrepreneurial university, for that reason, the REDEMPRENDIA has planned to launch the REDEMPRENDIA STARS program, an international business acceleration program to support the transfer of knowledge from universities to society. SOLA project is directly linked to REDEMPRENDIA STARS program as it develops and implements the training path for technical staff that will implement in the future the STARS program.As a specific objective, the project will implement a common training route to all partner universities of the project aimed at technical staff of universities with business incubator for acceleration and consolidation of strong innovative entrepreneurship and technological European Latin American and European Universities.The project consortium is composed by four higher education institutions in Latin America and four other European, all covered by an umbrella entity that six of the eight higher education institutions are members. This consortium is complemented by a business consulting Devalar, it brings to the project its expertise in the dissemination and capitalization of results field.The main results sought by the SOLA project are: Training module of 30 hours on LEAN CANVAS, training module 30 hours on strategic redefinition of start ups, industrial property and quality certifications, training module 30 hours duration of internationalization of companies, training module 30 hours on training of trainers in basic finance for entrepreneurs and consolidation and implementation of the course of 120 hours of final training for technical staff of incubators.

A global discussion is taking place among Higher Education (HE) stakeholders to strive for HE that does better justice to the needs of the learner and of society. The relevance of study programs is probably the most pressing issue in HE today worldwide, including the countries in South America. In the public eye HE institutions should offer high quality programs that contribute significantly to the welfare of society by preparing graduates well for work and for civic and social engagement. To meet this need, a paradigm shift is required from traditional expert-oriented teaching to student-centred and active learning, based on competences and learning outcomes. Although there is full awareness that this shift is to be made, HE institutions and their academic staff in SA (and beyond) lack capacity, expertise and experience to make this happen. Building on work already done in Europe and in LA, ACE aims to develop effective mechanisms to give student-centred education a serious boost by acting as a catalyzer in 6 South-American countries, involving 13 key universities. ACE covers in each country 1-4 core academic fields, Nursing, Environmental Engineering, Education and History, representing as many HE sectors. At the heart of the project are 20 local working groups (WGs) consisting of 5 academics and of 5 student representatives each. The broad involvement of (local) staff and students is a unique feature. The WGs are all represented in transnational Subject Area Groups. Its members will be empowered to train their local WGs to reform their own programs. For this purpose, subject area qualifications frameworks will be made, based on (updated) meta-profiles developed in earlier LA projects. These will be complemented with in-depth training at 7 transnational meetings. As a result, ACE will result in 20 well informed learning communities that have reformed their programs and be equipped to assist other programs to make the reforms so urgently needed.