Northumbria University Welcomes Brazilian Delegation

Northumbria University welcomed Vice-Chancellors and Executive members from five Brazilian Universities on a visit to the University’s City Campus.

Institutions represented were the University of the State of Bahia (UNEB), University Centre of the Associated Faculties of Education (UNIFAE), University of the State of Minas Gerais (UEMG), State University of Santa Cruz (UESC) and the State University of São Paulo (UNESP).

In addition, the Executive Secretary of ABRUEM; the Brazilian Association of Rectors of State and Municipal Universities was in attendance. The delegation visited a number of institutions during their two-week trip to the UK.

Professor Jon Reast, Pro Vice-Chancellor (International), provided a warm Northumbria welcome for the visitors, which was followed by a number of presentations by colleagues to showcase notable research and achievements from across the University.

The speakers also included academic colleagues from Northumbria, Professor Martin Evison and Visiting Research Fellow from the Federal University of São Paulo, Dr Edna Iwamura, who spoke about their collaborative research at the University’s Centre for Forensic Science.

Brazil is the main partnership country Northumbria has in Latin America; Professor Reast said: “Northumbria has a longstanding relationship with Brazilian Higher Education, having had the privilege of welcoming over 50 Brazilian students to the University over the last three years, including Undergraduate, Postgraduate and Research Fellows.”

The University continues to build strong relationships with Brazilian Universities and Government bodies which promote economic development and social welfare. A recent example of this is securing a Newton Fund bid to work on Past Environmental Change in the Pantanal (PECIP) region with the University of Brasilia.

Additionally, thanks to its recent collaboration with Santander Bank, five Northumbria academics have been awarded scholarships to travel to different institutions in Brazil this year to develop research and funding bids.

Professor Reast added: “We hope to see more mobility of academics between our countries, especially from the UK to Brazil and that this visit gives us a chance to explore avenues to realise these plans.”

The visit was completed with a short campus tour, which included a tour of Northumbria’s award winning library, followed by a send-off for the delegation outside Ellison Building where the Brazilian flag was flying.