It is worth investing in internationalization?

Rodrigo Cintra, ESPM: need to train professionals for a multicultural management

By Marleine Cohen

Put Brazil on the map of global education, making it a coveted destination university for those who aspire to advanced study quality. This is the goal of internationalization of higher education that the country began to pursue, about five years. A long, hard road, imposing linguistic obstacles, Administrative, logistics and financial, beyond the requirement of qualified content in the classroom. But the return is worth, according to specialists: after all, this is academic excellence and this multicultural exchange that will feed the next generation of professionals working within and outside the domestic market.

The first step to open the windows of the Brazilian HEIs to the world was to generate an X-ray of English courses offered by them - conducted unprecedented mapping 2016 British Council in partnership with FAUBAI (Brazilian Association of International Education).

The findings show how demand and supply continue, both, very shy in Brazil: a total of 2.368 existing higher education institutions 2014, according to estimates from the National Institute of Educational Studies Teixeira (Inep), 270 IES (12% do total) maintain an international affairs department or similar service. these, only 33% They are responding to the questionnaire, from which it is revealed that there, altogether, 671 courses or subjects taught in English in 45 IES. Most of them - 418 modules - has short and eight out of ten (78,2%) they are paid. Nearly half of large schools (48%) offering courses in English is private.

According to the survey, the country hosts, per annum, no more than 9.884 foreign students - that is, only one fifth of 52.173 students enrolled in undergraduate courses in these institutions. The Southeast region is the one that has the largest offer classes in English: 60,6% do total, whereas the Midwest and northern Brazil contribute, together, with Whimsy 1,04%. altogether, there are only eight of formal degree programs in English.

At first, the goal of the Brazilian higher education internationalization movement is to direct the spotlight to the fields of knowledge where the country has developed more expertise - dentistry and agronomy, for example -, and exceed the number of students captured by markets such as Costa Rica and Argentina, They are publishing less and have more academic structure shy, explains José Celso Freire Junior, President of Faubai.

shorter, the courses in English do not go beyond one semester, but this has a reason to be: shorter, They aim to initially test the adherence of students: "First, we expose our institutions to the world through compact modules. After, we build ", says Freire Junior, remembering that the content of the formatting process observed two stages: "Initially, the teacher himself takes on the responsibility to structure its course; after, the university consolidates institutionally ".

globalized professionals
The benefits of opening the Brazilian higher education to the world are numerous: "Attracting students from outside, We developed an intelligence center and also create an international environment within our institutions ", Freire argues Junior. "It's internationalization at low cost, my house, for those who have no financial resources to bear the cost of training abroad. "

For Rodrigo Cintra, head of the International Office of the Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing (ESPM), the existence of an educational ecosystem that fosters global citizenship requirement is increasing market: "We need to train professionals for global positions, with full command of English, flexibility with regard to how other cultures think and react and ability to run a multicultural. Today, trainee in Brazil; tomorrow, Frame elsewhere in the world ", full.

In this sense, "Discipline becomes a means, not an end ", highlights the spokesman ESPM, institution that received, the last three years, about two dozen foreign students per semester and whose degree in International Relations, taught in English and Portuguese, has been around for a decade. "Students need to be exposed to other languages; it helps us to increase interculturalism, to consolidate our partnerships with institutions around the world and to deepen exchanges with them ", full Cintra.

With around 1.720 Brazilian students annually enrolled in its undergraduate courses, More than participate in fairs to attract students - the way most IES takes to score presentation in this medium -, ESPM chooses to invest in partnerships with top schools. altogether, maintains cooperation with 30 International IES, including the BCIT (British Columbia Institute of Technology), polytechnic public school in Canada, and Babson College, who teaches entrepreneurship in Massachusetts, In the USA.

Carlos Kamienski, advisor of international relations at the Federal University of ABC (Ufabc), one of the youngest higher education institutions in Brazil, the internationalization of Brazilian IES is beneficial not only to those who study, but also for anyone who teaches.

With an eye on the students and other teachers in, the undergraduate and graduate programs offered by the university in the areas of science and technology, engineering and mathematics depend on the formation of a well-structured faculty, able to meet various public and attuned to what's most innovative abroad. "Here inside, the vast majority of teachers consists of researchers who already have the field of foreign language and living abroad, allowing us to have a faculty able to really convey international experience in the classroom ", explica Kamienski. "As we have authorization to offer any discipline in English and we are a public institution that does not charge the student, the idea is to transform these teachers into multipliers of our internationalization. "

both, UFABC invests in perennial exchange partnerships and two-way mobility: in four years, You sent about 1,4 thousand young people to European universities, US, Japanese and Canadian and received another hundred students / year abroad. Besides that, often hire outside teachers to teach classes in order to travel and instigates its own faculty to prepare content in English, based on cooperation agreements with foreign institutions.

parallel, to help educators to differentiate the global class of merely translated, IES holds regular courses in English, within the concept EMI (Inglês as a Medium of Instruction or English as medium of instruction) - methodology that elected the language as a universal language to teach courses in all areas of knowledge in environments where it is not used commonly.

Another effort UFABC in order to internationalize their courses relates to credit and curriculum: "Our strategy is to deliver the most basic subjects in both English and Portuguese, It is that most student loans are in elective courses.

Like this, rule, each semester, he has available two or three subjects in English ", explains Carlos Kamienski. Visits to foreign universities and international fairs, besides the effort to translate curricula, menus and glossaries of terms for teachers and students, also part of the list of initiatives taken to open up to the world.

Infrastructure reception
For Eugenio Trivinho, advisor for international affairs at PUC-SP, the internationalization of Brazilian higher education goes beyond the creation of a bilingual faculty. Even because, generally, university professors have command of at least one foreign language. "What is missing is a route from speakers teachers to participate in events and fairs, in Brazil and abroad. "

The intellectual production abroad as well as bilingual or multilingual publication of scientific books and articles in domestic and abroad, conducting research internships, conferences and lectures as a guest teacher and the supervision of post-doctoral students coming from other countries are activities that allow professionals to distinguish in their midst and structure good courses, believes.

This is assuming win another difficulty that is not only educators, believes Trivinho, for whom there is in the country "a strong language barrier": "Brazil woke up too late for globalization based on the English language tract and has no intellectual culture dedicated to the internationalization. Even the educational elites are not ready for it ", rating.

Against this reality, he says, PUC to implement optou fear, like other IES, an internal policy of valuing foreign language proficiency, a movement that, recognizes, It is just gaining momentum.

With four campuses in São Paulo and one in Sorocaba, which operate nine schools, the institution received in the last three academic years, annually, near 250 foreign students, who offers several optional subjects of the curriculum in English, as well as extension and specialization courses. By comparison, please note that the actual IES, per annum, close to enrollment 3,5 thousand Brazilian students in undergraduate courses.

For 2017, the idea is to improve these results: "Back in February, we welcome near 60 students from outside, in return the same number of young Brazilians we move in December 2016 for 11 countries where we have partnerships ", reports.

Another giant PUC-SP's efforts to establish itself on the route of globalized education with regard to hosting and logistical support to students: "Four out of ten students that follow a course with us are captured by specialized organizations, many of them US, offering a choice of accommodation in private homes or in furnished apartments, nearby campuses.

The payment, in this case, It is done at the source. Others 50% are young people whose registration falls under any of the international exchange programs or bilateral agreement that the PUC maintains worldwide. Lastly, 10% Captures are students that follow some subjects in the semester and pay directly to the university in the proportion of studying ", explains Trivinho.

For this audience, PUC maintains an online list hosting in Portuguese, as well as a center of international coexistence, restaurant and cafeteria.

Source: http://www.revistaensinosuperior.com.br/de-portas-abertas-para-o-mundo/ (access 23/06/2017)