“There’s so much need, there are so many issues and difficulties. But as the saying goes, necessity is the mother of all innovation,” executive director of the Institute for the Future of Education at the Tecnológico de Monterrey, Michael Fung, told delegates of the IFE Conference 2026.
Notwithstanding persistent economic, political and security challenges facing Latin America, Fung said Mexico and the wider region had “an opportunity to play an outsized role in talent development, production and services”.
Addressing over 6,000 attendees at Tec de Monterrey’s 12th annual IFE conference, Fung highlighted the rise of educational innovation across the region, which he said was partly driven by the cultural entrepreneurial spirit – “alive and well” in Latin America.
“Geopolitical tensions that we are seeing around the world are causing shifts in supply chains and in talent flows,” said Fung, emphasising the global shift towards “de-globalisation” and heightened rivalry for talent in industries such as data, tech, semi-conductors, minerals and AI.
“International mobility flows are being reduced… countries open to human talent will see a rise in collaborations,” said Fung, highlighting increased interest in destinations such as Germany, France and South Korea, as visa restrictions hit the big four.
However, Fung warned against Latin American destinations emulating education systems in the global north, pointing out, “the starting points are very different”.
In advanced economies with highly structured societies, there is a tendency for the populace to rely on the system to solve problems and there is not as much need for individual agency, Fung told The PIE News.
Yet where systems are less structured, individuals are more likely to try and fix or work around challenges themselves, eventually creating a problem solving mindset among citizenry when things go wrong, explained Fung.
“So why I think there’s an opportunity for an outsized role for Mexico, is because when you mix a high youth population, that entrepreneurial spirit, and those gaps that need to be filled, there could be some really amazing innovation creating economic and social opportunities.”
Across the conference, delegates heard of the opportunity for universities to conduct high quality academic research to deliver real world, near-term impacts addressing the region’s societal challenges.
“We all know publications and citations are not equal to impact, we still need to translate that into specific projects,” he said, highlighting initiatives such as researchers designing personalised, adaptive learning models to improve the level of female participation in STEM education.
What’s more, Fung noted specific projects in countries with emerging education systems where the needs of non-traditional learners are driving the development of flexible, future-ready models tied to industry.
For instance, he highlighted a “highly flexible curriculum design” delivering nano learning to the Madagascan workforce, allowing people to train in digital skills for the e-government and ICT industries without taking time off work.
Whilst this is not to say the era of the four-year degree is behind us, Fung emphasised the value of modular bitesized learning options set to increasingly sit alongside traditional courses, complementing and filling gaps in traditional diplomas.
Necessity is the mother of all innovation
Michael Fung, Institute for the Future of Education, Tecnológico de Monterrey
Meanwhile, Tec de Monterrey’s Novus program provides funding for innovative sector projects, supporting over 400 initiatives across Latin America, with lower faculty hiring costs compared to the US giving rise to more willingness to experiment at scale, said Fung.
And yet, Tec de Monterrey rector Juan Pablo Murra emphasised the wide array of challenges the region must overcome, including issues relating to equity, quality, efficiency and labour market relevance – many of which are borne from a lack of financial resources.
For instance, while literacy levels across Mexico are approximately 95%, among indigenous populations they are roughly 50%, said Fung.
What’s more, Mexico’s undersecretary for higher education Ricardo Villanueva Lomeli said addressing the country’s drop-out rate was “one of the greatest challenges” the country faced, with at least 300,000 Mexican students dropping out of K-12 and university education each year – a trend that has shown no signs of slowing.
“To quote Churchill… We have run out of money, now we have to think,” said Murra, reiterating that fewer resources often give way to creative and innovative solutions.
