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 BRICS+ University Rectors Forum is taking place from 5 to 7 June 2025, at the Museu do Amanhã, in Rio de Janeiro. UFSC is being represented at the event by Professor Luiz Carlos Pinheiro Machado Filho, Secretary for International Relations.

The Forum brings together leaders from the main universities of BRICS+ member states (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, Indonesia and Iran), as well as representatives from governments, the private sector, and civil society. The meeting focuses on promoting academic and scientific cooperation, with discussions on strategic topics such as artificial intelligence, sustainability, poverty alleviation, inclusion, diversity, energy transition and standardization in the BRICS+ space.

The program features thematic panels addressing everything from language policies to global challenges such as health, quality of life, and sustainable development. The event also includes the signing of cooperation agreements between universities and the preparation of a joint statement to be presented during the closing ceremony.

UFSC’s participation in the Forum underscores its commitment to internationalization, the pursuit of strategic partnerships, and the development of joint solutions to challenges faced by emerging market countries.
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This post is available in Brazilian Portuguese only. Please access the website in Portuguese to read it.

Source: World Humanities Report

The article The Languages Without Borders Network in Brazil has been published in the World Humanities Report and is now available on the Andifes-IsF Network website. Written by Denise Abreu-e-Lima (Federal University of São Carlos) and Waldenor B. Moraes Filho (Federal University of Uberlândia), with contributions from the Andifes-IsF Network, the article offers an in-depth analysis of the program’s evolution, its connections to the former Science Without Borders initiative, its impact on Brazilian higher education, the network’s structure and management, and its transition from federal government administration to Andifes—the National Association of Directors/Presidents of Federal Higher Education Institutions. The publication is available in seven languages: German, Spanish, French, English, Italian, Japanese, and Portuguese.

The World Humanities Report is a collaborative effort by the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI) and the International Council for Philosophy and the Human Sciences (CIPSH).

The Languages Without Borders Network in Brazil

As the article explains, the Languages Without Borders Network emerged in Brazil as a political and regulatory strategy aligned with the internationalization efforts at universities in the Southern Hemisphere. One of the key initiatives in this context was the Science Without Borders (CsF) program, supported by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) and the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) in Brazil. The program was criticized for prioritizing technology and innovation fields – such as Exact Sciences, Technology, and Medicine – while excluding the humanities and social sciences. The article highlights that “the program intended to internationalize Brazilian research, but it is impossible to address internationalization without considering language as the basis for communication among people and the central role of language education” (p. 4). In response to the academic community’s language proficiency needs for CsF scholarships, the Languages Without Borders (IsF) program was introduced as an alternative to supplement the teaching of foreign languages in Brazil.

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