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July 2014
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The much anticipated meeting with the Grupo Coimbra de UniversidadesBrasileiras (GCUB) andThe UWI was conducted in Portuguese, much to the delight of the visitors, who came to theSt Augustine Campus after meetings in Jamaica where they signed an agreement with The UWI to promote and strengthen academic, scientific and cultural cooperation through research, education, and project management. Member universities of GCUB come from all regions of Brazil and have established relationships with universities in more than 50 countries to facilitate partnerships in research as well as staff and student mobility.GCUB is particularly interested in developing relations with the Caribbean, especially in the areas of research into agriculture, health and family medicine, language teaching, and energy. The delegation, led by President Dr Maria LúciaCavalliNeder, stressed the need for Brazilian lecturers and students to improve their skills in English, especially with The UWI as a centre of excellence in this area. The Group wishes to invest more heavily in teachers and to bring teachers to The UWI for professional development courses immersed in an English-language setting.Carla RosaneZorioChelotti, Cultural Attaché, Embassy of the Federative Republic of Brazil, noted that the Embassy of Brazil plans an outreach to educational institutions about Government of Brazil scholarship programmes for undergraduates and postgraduates and this would include information on the GCUB opportunities. In this regard, Dr Jo-Anne Ferreira, Senior Lecturer in Linguistics, Coordinator Portuguese and Brazilian Studies in UWI’s Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics, mentioned two former students who went on scholarship to Brazil after just one year at the St Augustine Campus. Also present at the meeting were Dr Armando García de la Torre, Lecturer, Latin American History, Department of History, ElieteSampaioFarneda, Leitora (Visiting Lecturer, Government of Brazil), Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics, Dr Lancelot Cowie, Director, Centre for Latin America and the Caribbean along with Dr Paulo Teixeira de Sousa Jr., Secretary for International Relations,andDr Rossana V. de Souza e Silva (UnB), Executive Director of the Coimbra Group of Brazilian Universities. Vice-Chancellor Harris has accepted an invitation to attend the annual meeting of the Coimbra Group of Universities in Recife, in October 2014. |
