Dr. Víctor A. Arredondo is currently the Minister of Education for the state of Veracruz, Mexico. A native of Córdoba, Veracruz, Mexico (February 20th, 1949), he received a BA in Psychology, Universidad Veracruzana (Mexico), a Masters degree in Psychology from Western Michigan University and a PhD in Educational Psychology from the University of West Virginia. He specialized in Planning and Behavioural Systems Analysis and has been professor of graduate studies at various universities in Mexico and abroad for over 18 years.
During his professional career in education Dr. Arredondo has served as Chairman of the Psychology Department and Head of the Division of Social Sciences and Humanities at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico (UNAM: Zaragoza Campus) from 1978 to 1981; General Coordinator of Academic Programs at Mexico’s National Association of Universities and Higher Education Institutions (ANUIES) from 1981 to 1985; Director of University Development and General Director of the Office for Higher Education at the National Ministry of Education (SEP) from 1988 to 1997. He was elected President of Universidad Veracruzana from 1997 to 2004; then he was appointed Minister of Education for the state of Veracruz, his current position.
As President of Universidad Veracruzana, he conducted a modernization process of its physical and technological infrastructure with a special emphasis on: online-connectivity throughout the state; new and equipped spaces for library, language learning and individualized education services offered in seven regional campuses (about 120,000 square feet of total construction); and training of staff on the intensive usage of ICT in the academic and administrative operation of the university.
Dr. Arredondo has been a distinguished member of various academic associations and editorial councils and a consultant for public and private organizations, as well as a leader of national task forces on evaluation, planning, quality control, funding, internationalization, and technological innovation of higher education in Mexico. He has also directed initiatives on distributed learning through university networking and online-community services by establishing virtual classrooms, both permanent and mobile, as well as local tutorial support throughout rural areas.
As Technical Secretary of Mexico’s National Commission for the Evaluation of Higher Education (CONAEVA) between 1989 and 1994, he coordinated the design and implementation of national strategies for the evaluation of: student performance (National Center for the Evaluation of Higher Education: CENEVAL); academic programs (Inter-institutional Committees for the Evaluation of Higher Education: CIEES); and for institutions of higher education (Institutional self assessment). He also designed alternative mechanisms for performance-based funding (Fund for the Modernization of Higher Education: FOMES) still in operation to date (PIFI).
Dr. Arredondo has represented Mexico in various international organizations including the Trilateral Coordinating Committee for the Collaboration of Higher Education in North America from 1992 to 1997. This committee was responsible for establishing trilateral programs on student mobility, teacher training, distance education and research networks among institutions in Canada, the USA and Mexico.
He was a founding associate member of the Global Alliance for Transnational Education (GATE), the Consortium for North American Higher Education Collaboration (CONAHEC), and the North American Community Services Program (NACS). Other distinguished positions include his membership of the governing board of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU), and the presidency of both the US-Mexican Commission for Education of the Gulf of Mexico States Accord, and the Inter-American Organization for Higher Education (IOHE).
Dr. Arredondo’s publications include three books, more than 60 articles and the co-authorship of nine books, which include topics, such as: innovative teaching techniques; educational planning and evaluation; funding; quality assurance and enhancement; university social linkage for sustainable community development; external debt conversion for education and community development funds; and the internationalization of education. He has also participated as a speaker in many national and international forums, such as the Oxford Round Table.
He has received several awards including the Universidad Veracruzana Distinguished Graduate Award (1994); the CONAHEC Annual Distinction Award (1999); the National Award in Psychology from the Mexican National Council for the Teaching and Research of Psychology (CNEIP, 2003), the Medal of Merit from the University of Barcelona, Spain (2004), the Circolo Amerindiano International Award, Perugia, Italy (2005) and the Honorary Doctorate Degree in Educational Sciences from the University of Havana, Cuba (2005).
As Minister of Education for Veracruz he founded and developed the Vasconcelos Program, for which he received the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Access to Learning Award 2008 in recognition of an innovative concept of using information and communication technologies to improve and increase access to quality education in marginalized communities with state of the art mobile libraries. His vision of applying avant-garde technologies in education also gained him the Mexican Union of Corporations for Technology in Education (UNETE) Max Shein Award for Commitment to Education in 2008.