Office of the PresidentStrategic InitiativesAUCC Mission to Brazil

AUCC Mission to Brazil - President's Report

Background

The University of New Brunswick, along with 29 other Canadian universities, recently participated in a delegation to Brazil organized by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada and by the office of the Governor General of Canada, David Johnston. Dr. Johnston is a former university president.

With a strong foreign policy focus, the mission reflected Canada’s growing interest in Brazil, now the country’s third-largest trading partner in the Americas. The population of Brazil is 192 million people. It possesses the sixth largest economy in the world, having just overtaken the U.K. It is worthy of note that just 15% of its economy is export-based.

Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory in Campinas, Brazil. © MCpl Dany Veillette, Rideau Hall. Photo Courtesy AUCC.

Purpose of the Mission

The purpose of the mission was to promote Canadian excellence in research, to showcase Canada’s academic credentials, and to encourage the development of strong ties between Canadian and Brazilian post-secondary institutions.

Also present as part of the delegation were federal MPs Gary Goodyear, Minister of State for Science and Technology; Diane Ablonczy, Minister of State of Foreign Affairs; and Rod Bruinooge, Chair of the Conservative Party’s Post-Secondary Education Caucus.

As a result of conversations during the mission, Mr. Bruinooge has expressed interest in holding the Government’s Fall 2012 PSE Caucus meeting at the University of New Brunswick.

Value of the Mission to UNB

Brazil has set up a program called Sciences without Borders (SWB) which will provide travel, tuition and living costs for Brazilian students in so-called STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) disciplines. The initial program numbers 100,000 scholarships.

One of the more immediately tangible benefits of the trip is the allocation of 12,000 of these spaces to Canada, second only to the US (15,000), and more than the EU countries.

This offers UNB a significant opportunity to make progress on the goal of our strategic plan to increase the proportion of international students to 20%.

In addition, Brazil can lay claim to what is widely acknowledged as the most sophisticated innovation system in Latin America, with home-grown technology driving commercial success in a variety of sectors from aerospace to alternative energy, ocean technologies and pharmaceuticals.

In addition to helping both countries address growing skills gaps, the SWB program will provide students with valuable international experience. Brazilian students in Canada are expected to participate in “Canada as second culture” as well as ESL programs, an educational experience and an internship with industry.

In addition to the SWB initiative, the mission resulted in a clear framework, agreed to by government and institutional leaders from both countries, for the establishment and growth of collaboration in research and training between Canada and Brazil.

For example, the plan calls for the establishment of a research fund managed by International Science and Technology Partnerships Canada. Canada’s initial contribution of $4.5 million from the federal government is to be matched by Brazil. The fund is designed to promote research collaboration between universities and industry in the two countries, providing funding for exchanges of both junior and senior researchers.

This mission will almost certainly prove to be the first major step in an ongoing dialogue and partnership between Canada and Brazil on matters relating to innovation, entrepreneurship, research and development, and post-secondary education.

Mission Itinerary

Our time in Brazil was spent at a conference and workshop on international education in Latin America, forums on innovation, tours of some of Brazil’s federal research centres and cutting-edge technological institutions, and meetings with government leaders and representatives of agencies that fund innovation and student mobility. The itinerary for the visit was as follows:

Wednesday, April 25 (Rio de Janiero)