The IOHE: What is it?

The Inter-American Organization for Higher Education was founded in 1979 under the direction of Gilles Boulet and is currently the only university organization that spans the American continent.

According to its statutes, it is a “non-profit association pursuing essentially educational goals through cooperation activities with universities of the Americas.”

The IOHE is made up of about 400 university institutions and national university associations, which represent over 7 million students, 600,000 professors and 700,000 support staff members.

Its members, which constitute a unique network of partners, are found in 26 countries that are divided into nine regions of the American continent: Canada, the United States, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, Brazil, the Andean Countries, Colombia and the Southern Cone.

Member institutions elect the members of the Board of Directors and the Regional Councils through their legal representatives.

The IOHE’s General Secretariat is located in Quebec City, Canada.

More precisely, the IOHE is: 

1. A forum for reflection on the academic and social role, organization, and management of institutes of higher education in the Americas.
2. An association expressing the crucial contribution of higher education to the harmonious integration of the Americas and to the protection of cultural identities.
3. An instrument for training, professional development, exchange and reflection in the area of university administration, based on the IGLU Program from which more than 1,500 university administrators have already benefited and on the IGLU Seminars attended by more than 18,000 administrators.
4. An organization whose College of the Americas has already established training networks involving professors and researchers in the study of problems of hemispheric importance and developing courses that could become part of university programs.
5. An organization promoting the use of technologies to intensify academic cooperation and the social relevance of higher education programs and university administration.
6. An organization committed to better knowledge of the Americas and greater intercultural understanding, to facilitating academic mobility and the development of a culture of tolerance and respect for diversity and therefore offering its services, activities and programs in the four languages used in the Americas: Spanish, English, French and Portuguese.
7. A promoter of innovative strategies to increase collaboration and mutual support among institutions of higher learning and the respect of cultural diversity.
8. An organization that proposes strategies concerning educational systems to academic communities and political leaders.