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A delegation of US university presidents has returned from a visit to Cuba ¨C the first since President Barack Obama began the process of ¡°normalisation¡± last December.

The delegation from the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), representing 420 member institutions and led by its president, Muriel Howard, met up with Cuban university rectors and directors of research centres in Havana last month.

They had meetings at the Ministry of ÖйúAƬ, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment and the Ministry of Public Health, as well as the University of Havana, the University of Technical Sciences of Havana, the University of Information Sciences, the Technical Higher Institute Jos¨¦ Antonio Echeverr¨ªa and Center of Mart¨ª Studies.

The visit was also marked by the signing of a memorandum of understanding by Dr Howard and Jos¨¦ Ram¨®n Saborido Loidi, first vice-minister in Cuba¡¯s ÖйúAƬ ministry, designed to promote further academic collaboration between the two countries.

This led to the creation of a task force to ¡°develop mutually beneficial opportunities for professional development of faculty, increased student mobility and joint research at the undergraduate and graduate level¡±. Progress towards these goals would rely on ¡°an academic collaboration framework with specific steps and actions¡±, to be signed during the Universidad 2016 congress at the University of Havana next February.

The parties also pledged their support for a long-standing goal of the AASCU, namely ¡°the lifting of the US commercial, financial and economic embargo of Cuba which impedes mutually beneficial academic collaboration¡±.

matthew.reisz@tesglobal.com