"The project presented pretends to create a Regional Observatory for Quality and Equity in Higher Education in Latin America (ORACLE). The project is based on the assumption that there is no possible quality without equity. For it, the project involves the participation of 35 universities from 15 countries from Latin America and 5 European countries. It will be developed for 36 months from 2016 to 2019.ORACLE is an innovative project although it seeks to give continuity and sustainability to 4 ALFA.3 projects supported by the EU. In order to achieve an optimal function of the Observatory, previously, it is going to be built a Quality and Equity Unit (UCE) in each one of the 30 universities that participate in the project. These UCE's will propose and design actions, policies and strategies of institutional quality assurance and equity. Likewise, these institutional units will operate in a reticulated way and they will be the starter point and the main emphasis of ORACLE. The creation of new structures will encourage the Organizational Development of the Higher Education institutions of ""la Región"".The groups in vulnerable situation that ORACLE's Observatory is focused on are a total of eight: indigenous people, women, people with disabilities, non- traditional students, population with very low HDI, immigrants, ethnic minority groups and citizens from rural areas. ORACLE aims to provide an integral and integrated service and, unlike other initiatives, it is not exclusively circumscribed on the academic development of the students, but it will also work with people in vulnerable situations among all levels (professors, students, administrative staff and managers) and all institutional functions: teaching, research and management."

This project is an exploration of community practices that work with people in disconnected spaces, to create new connectivity, and capacity for change. Taking a lead from partners and perspectives within Latin America, this project brings together praxis-focussed artists, activists and academics from Brazil, Mexico and the UK, in a series of exploratory encounters (both face-to-face and virtual) that will investigate methods and processes for this work. Concentrating on understanding work in local community settings the focus of this collaborative investigation will be the ways in which such practitioners work with communal space, and specifically how these spaces become potentised, and how these practitioners can open up spaces with a qualities of what Victor Turner termed 'potency' and transformative potential, or 'potentiality' (1979: 465-6). These encounters of enquiry will enable practical approaches to interrogate, and be interrogated by, theoretical perspectives, brought to the discussion by artists, activists and academics from Latin America and the UK. Our intention is to create conduits for these influences and perspectives, and to enable knowledge exchange on three axes: between community artists and community activists, between academia and non-academic communities of practice, and between perspectives and experience of the global south (Brazil and Mexico) and global north (UK). Participants in the project will seek to co-produce knowledge and practice-based methodologies, informing the praxis of socially-engaged artists and activists, and to inform theoretical understandings of academics in the fields of social theory, activism and applied creative practice. Deliberately aiming to disrupt traditional dynamics of North/South knowledge exchange the project will connect artist/activist communities from the Global South with peer communities from the Global North, introducing the fundamental value of building on the strengths from both geographies of creativity and activism, and particularly challenging linguistic exclusion and established dominance by knowledges from the Global North. These modes of engagement will contribute significantly to the CC programme as the literature suggests (Miura and Sawaia, 2013) 'Southern' thinkers are often highly attuned and advanced in their treatment of ideas of connection, disconnection, community and creativity (refs): themes at the core of Connected Communities scholarship. Our 6 collaborating communities will connect by working together in intensive residential 'encounters' ('encuentros') in Brazil and the UK, using inclusive and non-hierarchical encounter processes that mirror the kinds of developmental workshops at the heart of the study. They will experience and interrogate each others' spatial-affective practices and ideas, from their respective fields of community arts and activism which overlap, but do not necessarily share recognised common languages or identities. The aim through these encounters is for the participating communities to co-create conditions that develop enriched understandings of their own work, that locate meaningful connections and comparisons for future mutual learning, and that inspire and motivate them to develop and continue these connections. The ultimate aim of the project, reaching beyond the lifetime of this award, is to develop an inclusive, interdisciplinary, international, arts/activism 'community (communities) of practice', in which fostering the creative potency and potential of spaces of activity is a key and conscious practice element. References: Miura, P. and Sawaia, B. B. (2013) 'Tornar-se catador: sofrimento ético-politico e potencia de ação' Psicologia e Sociedade, v. 25, p. 313-318 Turner, V (1979), 'Frame, flow and reflection: Ritual and drama as public liminality', Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, 6 (4), 465-99.

The PROFIC project will explore the topic of Intercultural competence curriculum development through professional development and pedagogical testing in higher education institutions in Latin America. Intercultural competence (a set of abilities for successfully dealing with different cultures and diversity) is one of top 10 graduate competences needed for the modern labour market. Universities are expected to provide their students with the competence to deal with different cultures and use the cultural diversity of their surrounding as an advantage for innovation. However, this task is put on academic and administrative staff, who might not have all the necessary skills to tackle rising diversity challenges or to support development of intercultural competence in their teaching. Studies and previous research experience show that, on the one hand, academic and administrative staff in universities might need to develop a higher level of intercultural competence themselves. In order to competently deal with such complex cultural challenges the PROFIC project will investigate, develop and test a holistic, customized, flexible and reflective professional and curriculum development programme that would provide LA HEI’s with increased knowledge, awareness, skills, attitudes and tools to be an intercultural competent professional (Region 8, priority 1). Moreover, through the use of work-integrated learning supported by technology enhanced learning and use of mobile technology and development of Open-Educational Resources (OER) Toolkit to support staff in integrating IC in their curriculum, the project will also address (Region 8, Priority 3) of New technologies in higher education. Therefore, the PROFIC project is committed to developing a learning programme and related OER tools a step change in how intercultural competence is perceived and tau at the individual, institutional, national and international level.