The Transborder Knowledge and Higher Education Network of North America: The University of Sonora - University of Arizona Node

This presentation explains why the University of Sonora is not exempt from the global, open, agile and dynamic processes of restructuring, transnationalization and virtualization of the higher education system. We discuss how among the guidelines of global change for higher education institutions is that they tend to establish networks, nodes and specific communities which strengthen local knowledge through distance education, and serve similar communities in other spaces and territories. Such is the idea behind the creation of a University of Sonora - University of Arizona Node, which will be described in terms of its characteristics, challenges and opportunities. Through interinstitutional linkages such as the one described, a split is sought away from the burocratic rigidities of the classroom, the titles and the temporal and spacial frontiers. Incorporating new flexible spaces, individuals, institutions, and social agents beyond borders, and, in general, linking with a series of networks and nodes which strengthen information and knowledge.