Ciência com fronteiras: a mobilidade acadêmica e seus impactos

Abstract

This study had the objective of analyzing the discourse of internationalization as a referent of quality in higher education in Brazil and as an example of what happens in other nations such as the United States, United Kingdom and Australia. For this reason, it took Science without Borders Program (SwB) as an unprecedented experience in the context of national policies. The mentioned Program, launched on December 2011, represents a milestone in academic mobility in Brazil, providing scholarships abroad which prioritize undergraduated students. The amount of public funding allocated contributed to the follow-up and assessment of the Program, aiming at offering tools for higher education institutions (HEIs) in the preparation of candidates, as well as in the collective use of the experience abroad. Under this perspective, a qualitative research was developed, by listening to coordinators of four Southern Brazilian universities, through semi-structured interviews. Also 58 students who had already had the above mentioned academic mobility experience in a varied number of countries represented the empirical side of this study. Firstly, their testimonies were collected through online questionnaire with open and closed-ended questions. After that, some of them were interviewed in order to deepen those answers. The theoretical contribution were obtained from Jane Knight (2005), Boaventura de Sousa Santos (1997, 2013, 2014), Marilia Morosini (2006), Philip Altbach (2001, 2002) and.others, who helped with the conceptual understandings as well as with interpreting data. In order to fulfill this task, Bardin’s Content Analysis (1977) was used as a reference. Data collection showed that the Program was established with no previous alignment with higher education institutions, what led to structural difficulties in its implementation. For each edict, some actions had to be taken to make it better. The interviewed coordinators consider SwB important and re-state their readiness to take part of the Program in their following phase. Although there are few actions towards the empowerment of the experience collectively, such as the validation of credits after academic mobility, some benefits can be identified in institutional level, with significant changes in the dynamics of International Relations and Academic Mobility teams. For the students, the opportunity, in general, was positive and their learning was analyzed through a categorization that took academic outcomes for granted as well as personal ones. The former scholars widened their world’s perspectives and improved their linguistic and intercultural skills, what under their point of view, are really worthy in the globalized world. Students state having suffered lack of support from Brazilian higher education institutions in their preparation phase for the experience abroad, as well as opportunities to share it when back to Brazil. This study, however, highlighted a positive assessment of the phenomenon of internationalization, as a factor that qualifies higher education under coordinators’ point of view as much as from students. The findings have the intention of contributing with HEIs in a way that the results of the Program are empowered in a collective dimension and also with social impact.