Since its inception, the Inter-American Organization for Higher Education had wanted to join to the Institute for University Management and Leadership (IGLU), whose activities were focused on university executives and administrators, a program dedicated to promoting inter-American academic activities that benefited both professors/researchers and students. With this aim, during the 1980s and 1990s, at least two projects were developed under the direction of the IOHE’s founding president, Gilles Boulet.
Faced with the growing urgent challenges brought about by the processes of integration of the Americas, in November 1995 at the Biennial Congress in Viña del Mar, Chile, IOHE members approved the creation of the program the College of the Americas (COLAM).
Over the following two years, a feasibility study about this third project was undertaken, owing to a grant of CAD$250,000 from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and contributions from the governments of Chile, Mexico, Brazil and Quebec.
In November 1997, on the occasion of the 10th Biennial Congress in Salvador, Brazil, the study’s final report was submitted to members and the College of the Americas was officially created (see the Salvador Declaration).
Between 1998 and 2002, IOHE members voluntarily contributed nearly CAD$482,000 to COLAM’s development fund.
The College of the Americas is an IOHE program whose main objective is to promote cooperation between universities in the Americas by creating inter-American training and research networks. This cooperation will in turn foster integration and development in the societies of each country founded on the principles of equality, quality, relevance, and efficiency.
Specifically, COLAM seeks to:
a) Improve the quality of the study programs with hemispheric interest through the creation of networks
b) Facilitate research on continental integration
c) Promote cross-cultural understanding
d) Promote democracy as a way of life
e) Support cooperation between universities and civil society
f) Collaborate on the modernization of public administrations.
To date, COLAM has given priority to:
An external evaluation (2005) confirmed the quality and relevance of COLAM’s activities (Follow-up of Results and Activities). The evaluator ended his report as follows: “(…) COLAM has demonstrated its ability to coordinate efforts and actions from different universities, as well as to develop university networks for specific topics.”