Brazil Academic Partnership Program

NEW YORK and SÃO PAULO, December 3, 2013—The Institute of International Education has selected sixteen U.S. colleges and universities for the 2013-2014 Brazil initiative of IIE’s International Academic Partnership Program (IAPP). They will participate in a year-long program comprised of training activities designed to assist each institution in implementing and sustaining partnerships with counterparts in Brazil. The program includes a week-long study tour to Brazil in spring 2014 to learn first-hand about the Brazilian higher education system and meet with potential partner campuses.

The participating U.S. campuses are: Dartmouth College, Farleigh Dickinson University, Lakeland College, The City of New York’s Lehman College, Medaille College, Rice University, Stetson University, Troy University, University of Arizona, University of Michigan-Dearborn, University of Missouri, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Wisconsin-Stout, University of Wisconsin- Whitewater, Wayne State University, and Western New Mexico University.

IIE’s Center for International Partnerships in Higher Education will guide the campus representatives through a strategic planning process in the current academic year geared towards establishing partnerships with institutions in Brazil. This group will also have the opportunity to benefit from the experiences of previous delegations of high-level officials who represented 14 U.S. higher education institutions in 2013 and 18 additional institutions in 2012.

“Higher education stands to play a vital role in Brazil,” said IIE’s President and CEO Allan E. Goodman, “and educational partnerships between the United States and Brazil will help build Brazil’s intellectual capital while fostering key institutional partnerships between the two nations.”

These partnership programs offer timely resources for campuses in both countries to explore areas of academic cooperation, including exchanging students and scholars and collaborating on research projects and degree programs. Over the past few years, both the U.S. Department of State and the government of Brazil have emphasized the importance of educational collaboration. Continued cooperation between the two countries is evidenced by the expansion of the Fulbright and Brazil Scientific Mobility programs, the addition of English3, a new language immersion program in Brazil, and the ongoing alliance in the US-Brazil Joint Action Plan on Racial Equality.

Brazil has become increasingly important to US higher education with the creation of the Brazil Science Mobility Program (BSMP) by the Brazilian government in 2011. This multiyear initiative will send 75,000 fully funded Brazilian students abroad for training in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields, with an additional 25,000 scholarships to be funded by the private sector. Working with the Fulbright Commission, Brazil’s Ministry of Education, Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) and the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), IIE has placed more than 6,000 undergraduate students from Brazil at 349 U.S. colleges and universities since the program’s start, and a projected 7,370 students will receive scholarships to study at U.S. institutions in 2014.

IIE launched the International Academic Partnership Program in 2009 to help colleges develop the partnership component of their strategic plans for internationalization. IIE has led delegations to China, India, and Myanmar in the past few years. Recent research and reports issued by IIE’s Center for International Partnerships in Higher Education have highlighted the increasing importance of strategic international partnerships to building the capacity of the institutions and providing a global environment for students and faculty.


About the Institute of International Education

The Institute of International Education is a world leader in the international exchange of people and ideas. An independent, not-for-profit organization founded in 1919, IIE has a network of 19 offices and affiliates worldwide and over 1,200 member institutions. IIE designs and implements programs of study and training for students, educators, young professionals and trainees from all sectors with funding from government agencies, foundations, and corporations. IIE also conducts policy research and program evaluations, and provides advising and counseling on international education and opportunities abroad.

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