Thinking about careers, businesses, and projects beyond national borders is one of the key factors that Prof. Ariel Yukelson identifies for the training of professionals in the region.
The Director of External Relations at the University of San Andrés Business School visited the University of the South ( Universidad ORT Uruguay ) as part of the agreement signed on August 18 between the two institutions, which includes the development of a dual MBA program. During his visit to Montevideo, he emphasized the potential for connecting academic and professional communities across different countries and the need for universities themselves to embrace the innovation they seek to foster.
“Today we need to look not at countries, but at regions, ”Yukelson said. In his view, a partnership between institutions in Uruguay and Argentina can expand opportunities for companies, students, and professionals looking to expand their operations into other South American markets.
Thinking in Terms of Regions
For Yukelson, the regional dimension is not merely a characteristic of cooperation among universities. It also reflects the way in which business and career paths are currently developing.
“When two prestigious institutions join forces, I am convinced that one plus one is always more than two,” he said. In his view, the combination of communities, knowledge, and connections can create “a world of opportunities” with a vision that extends beyond Uruguay and Argentina.
This approach takes on particular importance in the business world. Yukelson believed that limiting one's professional perspective to a single country can be restrictive in a context of increasing market integration and the flow of projects.
Their focus, therefore, is on an educational program that maintains an understanding of local particularities while, at the same time, enabling students to develop the skills and networks needed to function effectively on a regional scale.
The relationship between the Universidad ORT Uruguay , and the University of San Andrés fits into this framework. Yukelson highlighted the knowledge each institution has of its environment and the opportunities that arise when these experiences are brought together.
Innovate to Teach Innovation
According to Yukelson, the cooperation between the two universities did not begin with the formal signing of the agreement. Teams from both institutions had previously worked together and engaged in exchanges between Montevideo and Buenos Aires to move the initiative forward.
For the director of External Relations, this preliminary work is important because it distinguishes a partnership involving specific projects from agreements that merely express an intention to collaborate.
“Here, it goes beyond mere will; a great deal of groundwork was done,” he said.
Yukelson linked this approach to a characteristic he believes both institutions share: a willingness to innovate in their educational offerings and in their approach to education.
“If we want to teach management and we want to teach innovation, first and foremost we have to be innovative,” he said. In that regard, he spoke of “some shared DNA” between the Universidad ORT Uruguay and the University of San Andrés.
This statement poses a challenge for business schools: innovation should not be limited to being merely a subject taught in the classroom, but should also be reflected in academic decisions, educational formats, and the partnerships that the institutions themselves develop.
A binational experience
One of the projects included in the agreement is a dual MBA program developed by both universities. According to Yukelson, one of its distinguishing features is that it combines an international academic experience with the specific characteristics of the region’s business environment.
“The simple answer is that to stand out, you have to be better,” he said, referring to how a program of this nature can position itself against other educational alternatives. In his view, quality ultimately comes to be recognized through the experiences of graduates and the reputation a program builds over time.
Yukelson also highlighted the binational aspect and the opportunity to interact with people from different backgrounds. He noted that, in international programmes , graduates tend to particularly value their interactions with participants from other countries, in addition to the academic content.
The difference, in this case, would be to apply that wealth of perspectives to the context of Uruguay and Argentina.
To illustrate this, he drew on a personal experience from a program at the Wharton School. There, he explained, the scale of the investments and companies analyzed could be very different from the everyday reality in South America.
That difference in scale is significant for Yukelson: concepts such as “small and medium-sized enterprise” have different implications depending on the market in which one operates. For that reason, he believes it is important to combine international exposure with situations, organizations, and challenges that are relevant to the regional context.
He summarized that proposal in four components: “Academic rigor, excellence, a stronger River Plate network,” and an experience capable of combining the similarities between Uruguay and Argentina with the differences that also exist between the two countries.
Networks That Create Opportunities
Networking plays a central role in Yukelson's vision for business education.
Their approach goes beyond the classroom experience: relationships between university communities can lead to professional connections, strategic partnerships, and new projects. In this sense, a university also serves as a meeting place for people with different knowledge, experiences, and interests.
This perspective takes on an additional dimension when those communities are located in different countries. Yukelson envisioned opportunities not only between Uruguay and Argentina, but also for those who aspire to pursue careers or initiatives that reach markets such as Brazil, Paraguay, or Bolivia.
“Anyone who envisions a career in the region, anyone who envisions launching projects” with a reach across different countries, he said, can find in this type of partnership a conducive environment for growth.
Partnerships That Deliver Results
Yukelson also offered a broader perspective on strategic partnerships in the university setting. He noted that they are not as common as one might assume and that their true value depends on the ability to look beyond the interests of each individual institution.
When discussing the partnership between the Universidad ORT Uruguay and the University of San Andrés, he noted that he hopes the relationship can expand to include more programmes, new areas of collaboration, and joint research projects.
The key criterion, he said, should be the value that these initiatives are capable of generating.
“If we focus on ensuring that this partnership creates value for our economies, creates value for our students, and serves as a platform for launching new projects,” he said, “cooperation among universities can have an impact that extends beyond their own campuses.”
This vision brings together the main pillars of his proposal: an education system connected to the reality of the region, universities capable of innovating in their own practices, and communities that function as networks to develop careers, businesses, and projects without being constrained by national borders.