Our cooperation under the Erasmus+ programme with the Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto in Brazil started in 2016. Since then we exchanged 14 staff members and 1 student altogether. Striving for the development of current cooperation our office plans to reach for other possibilities on the Erasmus+ offer, namely Strategic Partnerships included in Key Action 2 that aim to support the development, transfer and implementation of innovative practices. A visit of Ms Monika Stanisz from the Department for International Cooperation is a first step towards initiating joint, Action 2 projects.
The visit started with a working meeting with Jaqueline Pinheiro Schultz, the Head of the International Affairs Office – CAINT and discussing current exchange arrangements, future fields of studies to be included while application process, mutual support in building partnership network in respective countries and ways to reinvigorate bilateral agreements.
The schedule also included a lecture attended by a considerable number of students curious about the educational possibilities offered by our university and academic staff interested in the Strategic Partnerships’ application. Provided detailed characteristics of the project were a starting point for brainstorming ideas for the future project while the meeting with staff that followed. It was agreed that during the upcoming weeks the idea for the project will be outlined.
Thanks to the courtesy of the Erasmus+ beneficiaries that visited RUT it was possible as well to have an insight into the laboratory work and ongoing research schemes of the renowned UFOP’s units: the School of Pharmacy and the School of Mines. Both schools were founded respectively in 1839 and 1876 but what needs to be noted is the fact that the School of Pharmacy was the first of that kind offering pharmaceutical education in Brazil.
The programme comprised a study visit, together with international students from Chile, Mexico, Italy, Portugal, to Inhotim Institute one of the biggest outdoor art centres in Latin America as well as the meeting with UFOP’s Rector prof.ª Dr.ª Cláudia Aparecida Marliére de Lima. Upcoming 50th anniversary of incorporating the two schools into Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto was an excellent occasion to convey words of appreciation in the Letter of Congratulations signed by the Rector prof. Tadeusz Markowski and handed in to the Rector of UFOP while the meeting. She also received a replica of kerosene lamp invented by the patron of our university Ignacy Łukasiewicz. It was concordantly agreed that the cooperation of our universities has an incontrovertible impact on the internationalization process so important both in the European educational environment and around the world. Due to that continuation of joint activities, mutual support in building partnerships with other institutions in the respective countries is a key to grounding the process at both universities.
The assessment of the current Erasmus+ project Learning Mobility of Individuals applied for the academic year 2019/20 will be announced in August. Partner countries: Brazil, Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Montenegro.
