WSU signs international partnership agreement with Brazil

PULLMAN, Wash. – Recognizing the increasing importance of a global learning and research environment for students and faculty, Washington State University is engaging in a multitude of strategic international partnerships, including one signed earlier this month with Brazil’s Agency for Graduate Education.

 

“Brazil represents one of the strategic countries where WSU is building and enhancing existing partnerships for research collaborations, student exchange programs and enrollment opportunities that enrich our diverse student population” said WSU Provost Warwick Bayly, who signed the agreement with President Jorge Almeida Guimarães of the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES).

 

WSU is one of 18 U.S. institutions engaged in a year-long program with the Institute of International Education on developing a strategic plan for building partnerships with institutions in Brazil.

 

Prema Arasu, vice provost and associate vice president of WSU International Programs, and two of WSU’s “Science Without Borders” Brazilian undergraduate students were on hand for the signing and attended the Brazil-U.S. Partnership for the 21st Century Forum at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington D.C.

 

 

The signing capped a successful campaign that included a visit by Arasu and WSU Honors College Assistant Dean Jessica Cassleman. They traveled to Brazil in mid April to meet with potential partner campuses, learn about Brazilian higher education and establish student internships and exchange programs.

 

The delegation went to São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, Campinas and Piracicaba to meet with faculty, students and officials from public and private institutions, the Fulbright Commission, CAPES and the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq).

 

The delegation engaged in several high-level policy events, including a U.S.-Brazil Partnership roundtable in São Paulo. Discussion on the challenges and opportunities for expanding U.S.-Brazil educational relations included Arasu, Jeffery Peck from City University of New York and representatives from two Brazilian institutions, including the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo.

 

WSU professor Gustavo Barbosa-Canovas, who revisited the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (University of Campinas, UNICAMP) in March to further his research collaboration and coordinate preparations for the 16th World Congress on Food Science and Technology with Professor Glaucia M. Pastore, said, “UNICAMP, which is described as the ‘MIT’ of Latin America, has programs in food systems, plant sciences and bioenergy, among others, that would be very complementary to WSU’s priorities.”