Brazilian Scientific Mobility Program - Science without Borders - Preliminary Results and Perspectives

Abstract

The Brazilian Scientific Mobility Program -Science without Borders (SwB) -saw the concession of over 101 thousand scholarships for Brazilian STEM students and education professionals to attend universities worldwide. As the first phase of this program ends, it is time to take a first look at its impacts, mainly on the undergraduate student body (79% of total scholarships implemented). Benefits included a 6-month language course (optional), a one year undergraduate course and optional 2 month internship in a university, government laboratory or technology company. Positive impacts have been seen on entrance into postgraduate programs (>20% of SwB students compared to <5% of the overall student body of similar fields), as well as high representation of lower income families (>50% from families with less than 6 minimum wages per month). The impact of the program will need to be evaluated over the next years, but innovation on the part of the students is already apparent. Any new SwB program needs to take into account the lessons learned from this first experience and therefore recommendations are presented.

International collaboration in Brazilian science: financing and impact

“…As more institutions, regions and researchers in Brazil enter the postgraduate system, where over 95% of research is carried out in Brazil (McManus and Neves 2020 ), the demand for collaboration increases. Programs such as Science without Borders (McManus and Nobre 2017 ) increased Brazilian presence abroad but does not seem to have changed the growth in the number of collaborating institutions or researchers (2011 – 2016).…”

Colonial legacies in internationalisation of higher education: racial justice and geopolitical redress in South Africa and Brazil

“…The Brazilian government has launched numerous internationalisation efforts -CAPES and National Council for Scientific and Technological Development [CNP] programmes, Science without Borders - (Rivas and Mullet 2016;McManus and Nobre 2017;Nery 2017). However, the focus has been on efforts to expand scientific networks and to increase Brazilian student mobility towards countries in Europe and North America and within Latin America, whereas academic collaboration and exchange with African countries seemed to be more of a footnote.…”

Transnational research training: Chinese visiting doctoral students overseas and their host supervisors

“…A total of 79 per cent of the sponsored students were undergraduate students in their second to fourth years of studies in Brazil and sent overseas for one academic year to 18 months on non‐degree programmes. Approximately 9,680 doctoral students also obtained scholarships from this programme for research visits overseas (McManus & Nobre, ; Zahler & Menino, ).…”