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Now it’s all about making things happen.

Ensuring that the 75 agreements signed this past week between Canadian university presidents and their Brazilian counterparts lead to action and yield results has been a recurring theme of the Brazil mission. But perhaps that need was not stressed as strongly or at such a high level before as it was yesterday at the Presidential Palace in Brasilia.

That’s where St. Francis Xavier University President Sean Riley signed an agreement between the university’s Coady International Institute and Brazil’s Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. Participating in the signing and making remarks was Gilberto Carvalho, Chief Minister of the General Secretariat of the Presidency. Minister Carvalho expressed a deep commitment to the values being put into action through the StFX partnership.

L to R: Rocksane de Carvalho Norton, vice-president of the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Gilberto Carvalho, chief minister of the General Secretariat of the Presidency, Sean Riley, president, St. Francis Xavier University and in the background, Jamal Khokhar, the Canadian ambassador. © Rildo Borges

It’s a partnership focused on sustainable community development and democratic participation. “Today it is our honour to have this agreement,” said Minister Carvalho, “because we’re talking about the construction of democracy.” And that’s a value Brazilians hold dear.

He said democracy, which Brazilians fought for the in the 1960s and 1970s, can only be fully achieved when the people have both the right to participate in that democracy as well as the education and training that makes them able to participate. He said Brazil’s fight against dictatorship proved to be “a good training ground for democratic leadership in Brazil.

“We also have an open mind with respect to the ideas of others and we need to learn more,” the minister added. And that‘s where the Coady Institute comes in.

Over the past 50 years, the Coady has provided community development training to 6,000 graduates from 130 countries. Among other things, this new agreement will provide opportunities for social organization leaders in Brazil to gain practical training at the institute on the StFX campus in Antigonish, Nova Scotia.

In talking about what StFX and the Coady Institute have to offer, Dr. Riley said, “Probably our greatest interest is in the grassroots development of leaders; the development of leaders from the ground up and not necessarily from the top down.”

Canada’s ambassador to Brazil, Jamal Khokhar, also stressed the importance of moving from words to action. He said the StFX agreement demonstrates how Canada and Brazil can “work together in a spirit of cooperation, generosity and support for our shared role in building an active, capable and engaged citizenry.”

Minister Carvalho invited Ambassador Khokhar to join him in personally monitoring the success of this university partnership as it moves now from words to action.

Mamdouh Shoukri, York University president, shares his impressions of the Brazil mission. He looks forward to expanding already existing relations between Canadian and Brazilian students and researchers.

Today’s institutional visits in Rio de Janeiro gave our university presidents an opportunity to get down to the nuts and bolts of building new and stronger connections with Brazilian partners. At the Universidade Federal Fluminense, for example, the institution’s leadership was very specific about what it wants to work on in collaboration with Canadian universities. This includes collaboration in research, two-way student mobility, joint degrees at the undergraduate level, joint supervision of doctoral degrees, as well as shared links with industry.

Canadian university presidents visiting a lab at the Universidade Federal Fluminense

Getting reciprocal student mobility is a priority. It was noted that Fluminense has sent 15 students to York University (which has become a popular choice) but has only received two York students in return. They’d like to work with their Canadian partners to get a better balance in student exchange. However, this university still has an appetite to increase the number of students going to Canadian universities.

UFF currently has seven students preparing to come to Canada through Science without Borders, Brazil’s ambitious student mobility program. They have a total of 30 Science without Borders fellowships and would like to see even more of these students go to Canada. While in Brazil last week, His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada, announced Canada would welcome 12,000 Brazilian undergraduate, doctoral and post-doctoral levels under the Science without Borders Program.

The presidents had a frank discussion at UFF about what has to happen so that Canada can become an even more attractive partner for Brazil. The advice from UFF administrators was to be specific about the areas of study or research where we want to cooperate, and also to nurture the people-to-people relationships that make these connections happen.

It is clear that building trust will be a key element of success. And our Brazilian hosts pointed to this mission as an excellent example of how this happens.

Stephen McClatchie, principal at Huron University College, reflects on the first days of meetings and talks about how impressed he is with the Brazilian government’s commitment to the advancement of higher education.

Yves Beauchamp, director general of the École de technologie supérieure, highlights his opportunity to strengthen already established links between ETS and Brazilian institutions. He hopes to be able to attract high calibre Brazilian PhD students in order to stimulate research at his university. (Video in French only.)

Paul Davidson, AUCC president, reflects on meetings with Canadian and Brazilian students. He welcomes the significant contribution by the Brazilian government via its Science without Borders program. Canada could receive up to 12,000 Brazilian students in the coming years thanks to this program.