Prime Highlights
- Brazil aims to shift from participating in global education to shaping its direction.
- Growing global student demand is creating opportunities for emerging education destinations.
Key Facts
- FAUBAI is the Brazilian Association for International Education that promotes global academic collaboration.
- International student numbers worldwide are projected to reach 8.5 million by the end of the decade.
Background
FAUBAI has outlined an ambitious vision for Brazil to take a leading role in shaping global education, as its annual conference concluded recently. The organisation’s president, José Celso Freire Júnior, stressed that Brazil aims to move beyond participation and help define the global education agenda.
The conference focused on the idea of internationalisation in a multipolar world. Freire pointed out that Brazil can fill the gap existing between the regions of the Global North and Global South because of the academic superiority of the nation and ties with the African and Latin American regions. The links with other BRICS countries and Portuguese-speaking countries are also considered beneficial.
The leaders mentioned a change in trend in the area of global education, whereby countries with conventional centers for study have lost their importance, while new countries have gained ground. At the same time, the number of international students worldwide is expected to grow significantly by the end of the decade.
Freire believes that Brazil needs to reconsider its methods of handling international partnerships. His framework establishes that international mobility should extend beyond student study abroad programs to include all academic activities that involve international collaboration through research and online communication methods.
While all these benefits exist, Brazil is dealing with the issue of visibility. Freire explained that a lot of students across the globe do not realize that most public universities in Brazil provide tuition-free education, including scholarships for graduate studies.
FAUBAI has been working towards raising more awareness among education organizations globally through different mechanisms aimed at connecting students to institutions providing instruction in different languages. The national strategy also emphasizes the need for universities to develop comprehensive international strategies.
