UWI lifts profile – offering students more opportunities internationally

Dr. Anthony Fisher, Director of External
Relations at the Cave Hill Campus.

 The University of the West Indies is partnering with the Coimbra Group of Brazilian Universities (CGBU).

UWI’s signature of a Co-operation Agreement with CGBU’s 65 member universities, vastly expands the number of study abroad partners for the UWI, where students can get Portuguese language immersion and knowledge of Brazilian culture, while they study in their substantive areas.

“What this agreement does between the Coimbra Group and the University of the West Indies is significantly lifting our international profile,” noted Dr. Anthony Fisher, Director of External Relations at the Cave Hill Campus.

“While we have done bi-lateral agreements with individual and very good Brazilian Universities, the Coimbra Group has within it 65 universities from which we can do research partnerships; we can also take advantage of specific full degree programmes, as well as mobility programmes,” he explained.

Dr. Fisher further pointed out that the University is responding to a regional need – a need in terms of how to innovate, and compete globally.

“We traditionally looked at North America, but we cannot ignore Brazil,” he stressed.

“One of the priorities of this campus, and indeed the University, is internationalism... because it is the only way students who grow up on islands like this can compete, and with Brazil being the sixth largest economy in the world, we cannot ignore Brazil. Our governments are not ignoring Brazil – Brazil is the
next frontier for the Caribbean,” he stressed.

From left: President of CGBU, Prof. Maria Lucia V. Cavalli
Neder; Prof. Rossana De Souza E Silva, Executive Secretary
of the CGBU; and Prof. Paulo Teixeira De Sousa, Jr., Director
of the Office of International, Relations, University of Mato
Grosso, during a visit to the Cave Hill campus.

Exchange opportunities

Recently, Prof. Maria Neder, President of the CGBU; Prof. Rossana E Silva, Executive Secretary of the CGBU; and Prof. Paulo De Sousa, Director of the Office of International Relations, University of Mato Grasso, paid a visit to the Cave Hill Campus. During the visit, presentations were made to the Brazilian delegation in the areas of English as a secondary language at Cave Hill, research into Barbadian immigrants to Brazil, CERMES collaboration and desirable partnerships in Brazil, and bio-fuels research at Cave Hill.

One of the many opportunities for UWI students, revealed by Prof. De Sousa, is in terms of the mobility of Caribbean students wishing to go to Brazil.

He pointed out that under the OAS Scholarship Programme, Caribbean students are not required to be fluent in Portuguese, since the programme includes a component of language training in Brazil. (TL)