Rui Vicente Oppermann: “We want not only individual universities to cooperate, but also the educational systems of Brazil and Russia”
On June 12 Kazan Federal University hosted a meeting of the university administration with the delegation of the Ministry of Education of the Federal Republic of Brazil.
Director of the Brazilian Federal Agency for the Support and Evaluation of Higher Education (CAPES) under the Brazilian Ministry of Education Rui Vicente Oppermann and Advisor, General Coordinator for International Higher Education Jacqueline Pinheiro Schultz arrived at KFU accompanied by Professor of the Russian State University for the Humanities Vera Zabotkina.
KFU was represented at the meeting by Vice-Rector for International Affairs Timirkhan Alishev, Director of the International Office Olga Vershinina, Deputy Director for International Affairs of the Institute of Psychology and Education Tatyana Baklashova, Head of the Department of Pedagogy Roza Valeeva, Associate Professor of the Department of Regional Studies and Digital Humanities of the Institute of International Relations, Head of the Latin American Center of KFU Lilia Ilikova, and Lecturer of the Department of European Languages and Cultures Álefe Aprígio Kochkin.
Presenting KFU, Dr Alishev told the guests about the structural divisions of the university, its priority areas, as well as educational programs. According to the Vice-Rector, two Brazilian citizens are currently studying at the University.
He noted that Kazan University actively develops cooperation with scientific and educational centers of the Federative Republic of Brazil.
In addition, KFU has an agreement with the Brazilian Embassy in Moscow to implement a program of teaching Brazilian Portuguese, literature and culture of Brazil. As of today, 180 students are learning the language of Jorge Amado and Machado de Assis.
“We are very pleased that you have found time to visit our university, and if there are any projects in which KFU can be represented, we are certainly very interested in this kind of cooperation,” Timirkhan Alishev said.
Rui Vicente Oppermann said that he was impressed by the scale of KFU, as well as the variety of programs.
“Thank you for the welcome you have given,” the guest added. “I must mention the History Museum of Kazan University, which we visited before the meeting. There we learned about world-famous persons who have studied and worked at the university. Your university has a glorious history. At the same time, it is successfully developing today. We were very impressed by the large number of KFU students studying Brazilian Portuguese. That is very important for us.’
The CAPES Director remarked that the purpose of his trip was to strengthen cooperation between the universities of the two countries.
“Many Brazilian and Russian universities successfully cooperate. But we do not only want individual universities to interact, but the educational systems of our countries,” emphasized Rui Vicente Oppermann.
Jacqueline Pinheiro Schultz spoke about the programs in which Russian undergraduate and graduate students can participate.
“We are very pleased that your university is successfully working in many research areas. We are very interested in cooperation in computer science, artificial intelligence, energy, humanities, and social sciences,” emphasized Rui Vicente Oppermann.
Roza Valeeva said that since 2021, Kazanites together with colleagues from the Federal University of Triangulo Mineiro and the University of Sorocaba have been researching the state of teacher education in BRICS countries. The project is titled Globalization and Teacher Education in BRICS Countries: Positioning Research and Practice, Promoting the Integration of University-School Systems. It is supported by WERA, the World Association for Research in Education. The results of the joint research are presented in the book Globalization and Teacher Education in the BRICS Countries. The Positioning of Research and Practice in Comparative Perspective. It will be published in July-August by Routledge.
Dr Valeeva also informed that KFU’s employees interned at Sorocaba University under the auspices of Tatarstan’s Algarysh Program.
“There are no books in Russian on teacher training in different BRICS countries. We plan to publish a series of books dedicated to teacher education in BRICS countries. A separate book will be dedicated to each country. They will be in Russian,” shared Valeeva.
Lilia Ilikova spoke about the interaction of the Institute of International Relations with Brazilian universities in science and education, noting that it started back in 2017, and in 2018 KFU began teaching Brazilian Portuguese. There are currently two Brazilian nationals working at the Institute.
At the end of the meeting Timirkhan Alishev presented Rui Vicente Oppermann with a book as a gift.