Five students have already been selected with scholarships to carry out their studies in person at the institution
Through the Brazilian Association for International Education (Faubai) and the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), Nigerians have been selected to study for master's, doctoral and post-doctoral degrees at Brazilian universities associated with Faubai. At the State University of Maringá (Universidade Estadual de Maringá - UEM), the graduate programs in Environmental Ecology, Continental Aquatic Environments, Linguistic and Literary Studies and Animal Sciences selected eight post-doctoral candidates.
For 2024, five of the eight students already selected have been awarded a grant from the Nigerian agency TFTFund to carry out their studies in person at the institution.
The offer of online courses was one of the first activities carried out by Brazilian Higher Education Institutions to these candidates. The Portuguese as a Foreign Language (Português como Língua Estrangeira - PLE) course was promoted by the Student Integration Program (Programa de Integração Estudantil - Prointe), of the Office of Teaching Affairs (Pró-Reitoria de Ensino - PEN), in partnership with UEM's International Cooperation Office (Escritório de Cooperação Internacional - ECI) for approximately 55 Nigerians.
Prointe offers pedagogical support workshops to academics, UEM professors and the external community. PLE is one of Prointe's expanding workshops. The courses are held in person and online, at basic and intermediate levels, and are run by three students from the Linguistic and Literary course: Giovana Scalabrini Antunes, Larissa Ferreira Santos and Victor Hugo de Souza Siqueira, under the guidance of Professor Aline Cantarotti, from the Department of Modern Languages (Departamento de Letras Modernas - DLM).
Teacher Giovana Antunes, who teaches the course for Nigerians, says that "the experience has been challenging, but very good. The students are polite and participative. We are learning from each other.”
This initiative includes language policy actions and is important for the internationalization of the University. As future actions, courses will be offered to 50 Paraguayans from the Universidad Nacional de Concepción and 30 Chinese from the Hunan University of Science and Engineering (HUSE).
Translated by: Felipe Piva
Proofread by: Felipe Lisbôa