Thinking about Internationalization
INTRODUCTION
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Comments
Professor's opinion: For a pondered internationalization ​by Professor Francisco Gomes
Student's opinion: DCE - Struggling for a more democratic university
​Professor Francisco Gomes and Wesley Allisson
Francisco Gomes is PhD and Tenured Professor in Applied Mathematics at Unicamp and he was the first coordinator of the Interdisciplinary Higher Education Program called ProFIS at Unicamp along 2011 and 2012. His interest in the academic area is said by him as "something common in the family."
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The problems of Brazilian education are well know by all of us and according to Professor Francisco the biggest of them concerns basic education, that is primary and secondary education: "The primary and secondary schools do not prepare students properly." But he also draws attention to a problem of Higher Education in Brazil, one that also happens in a university such as Unicamp: lack of vacancies.
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The paradoxical situation dues to quality of teaching, because it is necessary to create more vacancies, and, at the same time, keep the good quality of education. However he does not have a good perspective on that. "We always hope for the best, but I fear that they increase the number of places in higher education and leave the courses decrease in quality", he said.
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When asked about the internationalization of the universities, he calls attention to a necessary pondered and careful analysis: "we must not deny the benefits that it brings to the University". However, he says that the internationalization will not solve the more immediate problems that we have. "Internationalization is good, it promotes an exchange of cultures and ideas that are important in order to develop higher education, to improve its quality and put our students and teachers in top centers." The professor, however, emphasizes that "Brazilian university has other problems that internationalization will not solve, but that does not mean it is not important or should not serve.
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Read the complete interview with Professor clicking here.
Diana Novaes and Wesley Allisson.
Diana Novaes is studying Social Sciences at Unicamp and is currently the general coordinator of the Students Directory Center (DCE). In an interview, we can see the history of student's struggles at Unicamp and how DCE stands before the questions of education not only in the university context.
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According to Diana, DCE is a democratic representation of Unicamp students once the actions taken within the university claim for student rights within its all campuses, even if in some of them students can’t count with an office where they can meet. "We can never represent all students, there are always differences, but the student movement has forums that are open for the participation of all of them," she says. Students get aware of DCE existence as soon as they enroll in the University. The directory "always makes a little manual to express what the university is like, bringing multiple reflections and critiques", claims Diana.
The actions of the DCE are not stuck on the walls of the campus, students are organized to provide assistance to the city, such as the popular pre-college preparatory course, which nowadays serves about 80 students, as well as active participation in the political life of Campinas, that recently had one of its biggest political crises. "We always try to bring to the guys (students) that public universities should serve to solve community problems, and that the community and the university should be better integrated", said Diana. She also explains that it is necessary to "understand that the university should not be a bubble".
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The dialogue between Unicamp DCE and other student representative institutions from other universities works well, because they are concerned about the situation of Brazilian education. "The whole public system has been through a process of commercial exploitation". So the struggle of student representatives is to make a democratic university and make sure it does not become a bubble, as Diana says: "what we understand is that we have to fight for excellent public education, and for keeping it free of charge for everybody".
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The internationalization of Brazilian universities has increased, but according to Diana this measure is not effective because it is "mainly focuses on indices, productivity, it does not help to really improve education". For the DCE's representative this is a very delicate issue at Unicamp, because there is "too great pressure upon both graduate and undergraduate courses, and also pressure upon students and professors so that they produce a greater number of articles and publications, so that undergraduate students get even better CRs. All
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Read the complete interview with Diana Novaes clicking here.
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By Wesley Allisson
Conclusion
