Finnish higher education attracts interest in Brazil

The event will be attended by 30 rectors from Brazilian higher education institutions, Alexandre Brasil Carvalho da Fonseca, the Secretary of Higher Education from the Brazilian Ministry of Education, and Rui Opperman, Director of International Relations at CAPES. CAPES is a Brazilian government agency that awards scholarships to graduate students at universities in Brazil and abroad. The event will be opened by Ambassador of Brazil to Finland Luís Antonio Balduino Carneiro. Kaisu-Maria Piiroinen, Senior Ministerial Advisor at the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture, welcomes guests to Finland.

"Brazil's growing higher education institution brings significant new opportunities for Finnish partners in building research, development and innovation cooperation. Many Finnish higher education institutions have cooperated well with Brazilian organisations for years, and now efforts are being made to raise their operations to a new level”, says Vesa Taatila, Rector of Turku University of Applied Sciences.  

Presentation of the Finnish education and research system and opportunities for cooperation

The Brazilian guests will be presented extensively with the opportunities offered by the Finnish education, research and innovation system for bilateral cooperation. Similarly, Brazilian experts report on the needs and strategic goals of the fast-growing country. Finnish education expertise as well as green economy and digitalisation expertise will be strongly featured at the event. Finnish healthcare has also interested guests in advance.

The event offers higher education leaders from both countries an opportunity to exchange ideas and explore opportunities for cooperation. In addition to speeches and networking, the program includes visits to Turku University of Applied Science’s Kupittaa campus, learning environments and laboratories. 

Three days of the five-day event programme will take place in Turku, after which the guests will continue to Helsinki to visit Metropolia University of Applied Sciences and the University of Helsinki. 

The partners in the event are GCUB (Group for International Cooperation of Brazilian Universities), Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Brazilian Ministry of Education, Embassy of Brazil in Helsinki, Institute Guimarães Rosa, Business Finland, Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture, Research Council of Finland, City of Turku, Business Finland, The Rectors' Conference of Finnish Universities of Applied Sciences – ARENE and Rectors' Council of Finnish Universities – UNIFI