Cuban and U.S. educators advocated for further strengthening existing ties at the sixteenth edition of the Research Searches event, held here today under the auspices of the Association of Cuban Educators (APC).
As part of the collateral program of the event, a group of 42 academics of Master's and Doctorate degrees from the American universities of Maryland and George Washington (United States), held an exchange with their counterparts from the University of Physical Culture and Sports Sciences (Uccfd Manuel Fajardo).
The visitors learned first hand about the work of this institution, which is about to celebrate its 50th anniversary, a dream come true by the historic leader of the Revolution Fidel Castro, and which has graduated more than four thousand foreign professionals from the five continents.
We came to participate in this exchange. We have been very inspired by the way Cuba trains its physical education students and we hope to continue with this dialogue, said the educators.
In this regard, they delved into the sports most practiced in their country, among them American soccer, basketball, athletics and finally baseball, which is very expensive to train because of the high cost of the equipment.
At the head of the delegation, Doctor of Science Laura Egel, told Prensa Latina that they hope to continue advancing in projects of pedagogical alliances with Cuba in the sports field and expressed the collective's intention to continue fighting against the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States on the island more than six decades ago.
In the academic field, Doctor of Science, full professor and former president of the National Court of Scientific Degrees in Physical Culture and Sports Sciences, Iván Roman, explained to the visitors how between 2000 and 2021 more than 418 doctoral theses were defended and 87 foreign students graduated from them. Cuba pays special attention to this aspect, he said.
For his part, the director of International Relations of the university, Yosbany Velázquez, told Prensa Latina that the University of Cuban sports has 135 international agreements and undergraduate students from eight countries are trained in the Bachelor's Degree in Physical Culture and Sports.
The conclave, which will conclude next Sunday, has an intense program that includes topics on sports and climate change, sports globalization and sports education in high competition, among others.
The academic event, which began in 1994, is an annual event and only ceased to be held in specific circumstances, among them during the George W. Bush administration (2001-2009) and later during the Covid-19 administration.