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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.

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.