Secretaria de Relações Internacionais | Office of International Relations

This post is available in Brazilian Portuguese only. Please access the website in Portuguese to read it.

The administrative building of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya.

The Universitat Oberta de Catalunya [Open University of Catalonia] (UOC) is a private university dedicated to distance learning, based in Barcelona, Spain.  It is the world’s first university with a virtual campus.

The Secretary for International Relations at UFSC, Prof. Luiz Carlos Pinheiro Machado Filho, visited UOC and gave us this report:

“As I was registered to participate in the 32nd European Association for International Education (EAIE) Conference and Exhibition, I thought it was important to get to know a university in Catalonia as part of the “Campus Experience” activity. The university with the name Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) caught my attention, but what really surprised me was the meaning of “Open”. The name, for them, means that the student does not need to be present at the university. Thus, I got to know the first completely online university, founded in 1995. It was an interesting and unexpected experience.

This university has been growing year by year and in the period 2019-2020 had over 70 thousand students from 142 countries enrolled in undergraduate and graduate programs, 478 permanent faculty members and 5300 collaborating faculty members, in addition to 667 administrative staff members. The practical classes, when needed, take place in other institutions located where the student is residing.

The pandemic forced us to undertake remote learning, and it certainly opened up the debate on online learning, which is very different from offering remote classes. At UFSC, we call distance learning (EaD) what others call online programs. It uses other teaching and learning methodologies that depend a lot on the students and their motivation. There are positive and negative aspects. It seems to me that the positive aspects include the fact that education is made possible for those who work, have a family, or cannot afford to live in the city where the university is based. From this perspective, it is inclusive, providing study opportunities for those who otherwise would not have them. In fact, the age group of UOC students is mostly above 30 years old. On the other hand, there is the very negative aspect of the student not experiencing the university and its daily life, not socializing, not knowing their colleagues and professors, and having to learn always through the cold contact of a computer screen. Online learning is there, and it is up to us (UFSC) to assess its relevance, utility and opportunity”.

Fernando Azevedo, Eliane Debus and Luiz Carlos Pinheiro at SINTER.

The Office of International Relations (SINTER) received today, 7 October, the visit from Prof. Fernando Azevedo, vice-dean for Internationalization of the Institute of Education at the Universidade do Minho, in Portugal, accompanied by Prof. Eliane Debus, Secretary for Culture, Arts and Sports at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC). They were welcomed by the Secretary for International Relations, Prof. Luiz Carlos Pinheiro Machado Filho. At the meeting, they discussed the broadening of the relationship between UFSC and the Universidade do Minho and the possibility of offering the Double Degree Program to the School of Education (CED) undergraduate programs. UFSC and the Universidade of Minho reinsured their intentions to strengthen their friendship and cooperation, particularly based on a shared cultural heritage.

Raumar Rodríguez Gímenez, professor and researcher at Universidad de La República (Udelar), in Uruguay, is currently visiting UFSC through the Escala Docente Program from the Asociación de Universidades Grupo Montevideo [Association of Montevideo Group Universities] (AUGM). The professor, who graduated from the Doctoral Program in Interdisciplinary Studies in Human Sciences (PPGICH-CFH) a few years ago, came back to UFSC to hold a seminar entitled “Las ciencias humanas y el descubrimiento del inconsciente” [The Human Sciences and the discovery of the unconscious]. In addition, Professor Gímenez gave a lecture and has been developing several activities in collaboration with colleagues and graduate students on the development of their theses. Professor Alexandre Fernandez Vaz is his host at UFSC and, jointly, they have been discussing strategies to increase the collaboration between Udelar and UFSC, especially concerning research and teaching.

Click here to learn about the AUGM academic mobility programs.

The Office of International Relations (SINTER) welcomed the Québec Office in São Paulo, last Friday, 5 August, to discuss possibilities for cooperation between UFSC, higher education institutions and the Quebec industry. The meeting was attended by Prof. Telles Lazzarin from the Graduate Program in Electrical Engineering, Prof. Philippe Jean Paul Gleize from the Graduate Program in Civil Engineering and Prof. Amir Antonio Martins de Oliveira from the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

On 3 July 2019, the UFSC Secretary for International Relations, Lincoln Paulo Fernandes, together with the Secretary for Innovation, Alexandre Moraes Ramos, the Prorector for Outreach and Extension, Rogério Cid Bastos, the Vice-Rector Alacoque Lorenzini, the professor and Head of Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sérgio Luiz Gargioni, and the professor Carlos Roberto de Rolt, from UDESC, attended a meeting at UFSC with the representatives of University of Bologna Rosa Grimaldi (Deputy Rector for Entrepreneurship), Antonio Corradi (Head of Department of Computer Science and Engineering) and Alessandro Grandi (chairman of AlmaCube SLR).

In the meeting, the group discussed the consolidation of partnership processes related to academic entrepreneurship. The visit also aimed at promoting a lecture by Professor Rosa Grimaldi about the role of higher education in the promotion of innovative entrepreneurship. The lecture was held for invited guests at ACATE, the Technology Association of Santa Catarina, on the same day.

Next Thursday, 21 March, Professor Dimitris Assimakoulas from the University of Surrey, United Kingdom, will give a lecture entitled “The Translation of Comic Books” at the UFSC School of Communication and Arts (CCE). The event will take place at the Drummond Room, Building B, ground floor, and will start at 10 am.

The lecture will be given in English and has the support of the Office of International Relations (SINTER), the School of Communication and Arts (CCE), the Graduate Program in Knowledge Engineering (EGC), the Graduate Program in Translation Studies (PPGET), the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Laboratory (Lempi) and the TraCor Research Group – Translation and Corpora.

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