Why Brazil?
Strengthening connections with Brazil is a top priority for Canada. This dynamic Latin American country is set to become one the world’s top five economies in the next five years. Canada has more investment in Brazil ($11 billion in 2009) than it has in India and China combined.
The Brazil mission reflects strong synergies with Canada’s trade strategy. The federal government’s prosperity agenda is underpinned by a goal universities and the government share: enhancing Canada’s economic prosperity and quality of life, in a global economy that depends increasingly on knowledge and innovation.
Both Canada and Brazil believe that higher education, international research and university-private sector partnerships drive innovation. Innovation, in turn, drives economic development and that means jobs for Canadians and Brazilians. Our two countries are working together to enhance our respective ability to innovate and compete globally.
Canadian universities can help bolster this bilateral relationship. Both Canadian and Brazilian universities have signalled their strong interest in reciprocal and mutually beneficial relationships, and share an interest in promoting innovation.
Goals of the mission
Brazil’s economic surge and emphasis on higher education present significant business and educational opportunities for Canada.
In response, AUCC is focused on raising the profile of Canadian universities in Brazil and has developed a three-pronged strategy centred on:
- building more partnerships in research, innovation and higher education,
- making Canadian universities a destination of choice for Brazilian students, and
- strengthening research collaboration between Canadian universities and their Brazilian counterparts, particularly in the area of university-private sector partnerships.
Quick facts about Brazil higher education
- In 2009 Brazil had 186 universities and 5,115,896 undergraduate students, and awarded more than 38,000 master’s degrees and about 11,000 PhDs.
- From 2000 to 2006, there was a 232 percent increase in total university enrolments in Brazil.
- Brazil places within the top 15 countries in the world and first in the Latin American region in terms of total scientific output, having produced more than 160,000 scientific documents in the last year.
- Seven out of 10 of the most productive Latin American universities are Brazilian.
- In 2010, Brazil published 2.9 percent of the world’s indexed papers.
- From 2003-2007, Canada and Brazil produced 2,282 collaborative papers, representing 2 percent of Brazil’s total papers.
- There are more than 110 active exchange agreements between Canadian and Brazilian universities.
