Initial contact with Dean Paulo Cesar Montagner and team aims at future research and teaching partnerships
authorship Mario Barra
image editing Paulo Cavalheri
Photography Antoninho Perri
Unicamp received, this Tuesday (13), the first visit to South America of representatives from Yildiz Technical University (YTU, in Turkish acronym), from Turkey, to discuss future academic partnerships between the institutions. The delegation was received by the rector Paulo Cesar Montagner.
The meeting, held at the Rector’s Office, was attended by Eyüp Debik, Rector of YTU; Özer Çinar, Senior Advisor; Hüseyin Yilmaz, Pro-Rector for Research and Development; and Gökhan Açıkel, Chief of Staff. During the meeting, data on both educational institutions were presented, with emphasis on the numbers regarding student mobility, both for undergraduate students and for master’s and doctoral students. “I liked the proposal to start preliminary discussions for international projects, as well as a possible collaboration via Erasmus involving Unicamp and Yildiz Technical University,” said Montagner. “There are many similarities, and this is a good time for partnerships of this kind. We will certainly work to carry out projects together.”
Çinar highlighted YTU’s aim to strengthen partnerships in South America, which includes visits to Chile and Argentina in the coming days. “In the case of Unicamp, from what we have identified here, there is a strong convergence of interests; the two institutions can contribute greatly to each other,” he explained. “Whether in the area of research or teaching, what we want is to create an environment that values student profiles that may be difficult to find in other parts of the world.”
For the Executive Director of International Relations, Rafael Dias, the focus on partnerships between Brazil and Turkey includes, among other objectives, the exchange of faculty and students. “We had this proximity with other Turkish institutions, with agreements already signed. In the case of YTU, today we had a very promising initial contact,” he explained.
Turkey is not a member of Erasmus+, a European initiative that supports the educational and professional development of scholarship and exchange students linked to partner universities — managed by the European Commission. However, the nation is considered an associated country and can benefit from all the activities of the program.
“They have great strength in terms of student mobility, both undergraduate and graduate, and these are quite impressive numbers,” said the director. “There is now the prospect of starting this rapprochement, identifying people on both sides who are interested in collaborating in research and teaching activities, which will obviously lead us towards formalizing an agreement very soon.”
Also participating in the meeting for Unicamp were Carmenlucia Giordano, associate director of the Faculty of Technology (FT); Caio Costa Oliveira, research faculty advisor; Mariana Rodrigues, associate director of the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Urbanism (Fecfau); and Mayara Morais, international cooperation assistant at the Executive Directorate of International Relations (Deri).
Original Post: UNICAMP website
