InterNews

The University of Porto was present at the I INTER Congress about Internationalization of knowledge from the perspective of higher education institutions of Northeastern Brazil, organized by the State University of Bahia (UNEB). The congress, held from September 25 to 28, in Salvador, Brazil, was attended by participants from 5 countries. It held several initiatives in parallel addressed to the academic and scientific community and also the 20th Meeting of FAUBAI Regional Nordeste.

The U.Porto, represented by the International Relations Office, led a course on project management, with a focus on management and fundraising and on modernisation and innovation processes through Information and Communication Technologies.

On September 22, the University of Porto welcomed more than 1,300 international students from 84 countries who arrived this semester to study in one of the 14 faculties of the University, under international mobility programmes such as Erasmus+, Science Without Borders (Brazil), or Ibero-American Santander Scholarships, among others.

The welcoming session took place in the building of the Rectorate, followed by a performance of the Academic Group of the Faculty of Law.

Video produced by TVU

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The Mobile+ Project, coordinated by the University of Porto, and approved in 2015 within the framework of the action "International Credit Mobility" of the Erasmus+ Programme, was awarded by the National Agency Erasmus+ as "Inspiring Project 2016".

The Mobile+, the largest project in Portugal in this category, with almost 1 million euros of allocated funding, involves Higher Education Institutions from nearly 30 countries from outside Europe from 4 continents, and promotes the mobility of students and academics and administrative staff, in both directions, IN and OUT, through the allocation of 225 scholarships.

The award, presented at a ceremony on September 21, in the space GNR'ation, in Braga, which aimed to distinguish the best practices in Portugal, is another important recognition of the strategy for the promotion of internationalization that the U.Porto has been carrying out in recent years, in particular concerning the participation and coordination of European projects and consortia of international mobility for students, academic and administrative staff.

The University of Porto was awarded the 2016 Institutional Award for Innovation in Internationalisation by the European Association for International Education (EAIE), which annually rewards European higher education institutions more actively committed to innovate in their internationalization.

This award was received by the University of Porto in September 2016, during the annual EAIE Conference, by the Vice Rector for external relations and culture, Profª. Maria de Fatima Marinho, during the opening ceremony of the Conference, which was held this year in Liverpool (United Kingdom).

The University of Porto is thus recognized by the largest association in the sector, with the internationalisation strategy that has being carried out in the last years, in particular with regards to the participation and coordination of international projects.
The proactive attitude adopted by International Relations Office in applications to EU funded Education and Training Programmes – in particular the Erasmus Mundus and Erasmus +, allowed the University of Porto to take part in a record number of international partnerships and consortia thus linking U.Porto to a thousand universities, in five continents, supporting more than 7600 mobility and involving a global funding of EUR 165 million.

In this way, and despite the financial and economic crisis in the country, the University of Porto managed to strengthen and expand its international visibility, and to diversify its funding sources to support the internationalisation process.

But more importantly, to be a part of these international consortia, the University of Porto secured guaranteed solid partnerships with nearly 1000 universities from all regions of the world, including the ACP countries (Africa, Caribbean and Pacific) countries and Asia, where the University had no tradition of international cooperation.

In fact, the opening to new cooperation opportunities is one of the pillars of the current internationalisation strategy of the University of Porto. In addition to participating in consortia, the institution has focused on the establishment of bilateral cooperation agreements with universities in countries where the U. Porto hasn't had significant presence and cooperation.

All these efforts have resulted in an increase in the number of international students attending the University of Porto. Only in 2015/16 academic year, the University received a record number of international students and researchers, 3,607 of 167 different nationalities. In the opposite direction, 1,250 students from the U. Porto had the opportunity to perform a mobility in 45 different countries.

Between September 4 to 10, the Vice-Rector, Prof. Fátima Marinho, accompanied by our colleague of the International Relations Office of U.Porto, Dr. Liliana Norte, visited some universities in Canada, including Concordia University of Edmonton, University of Toronto, University of Ottawa and Université de Montréal.

As part of these visits, the Vice-Rector signed an agreement with the University of Ottawa, in the presence of the Ambassador of Portugal in Canada, Dr. José Moreira da Cunha, the Vice-Rector of the University of Ottawa, Prof. Louis de Melo, and the new Portuguese Teacher, Dr. José Abreu Ferreira.

Signature of the agreement with the University of Ottawa

During the stay in Alberta, Prof. Fátima Marinho also signed an agreement with Concordia University of Edmonton, and where she was received by Dr. Manfred Zeuch, Vice-President International Research, Dr. Aurélio Fernandes, Honorary Consul in Edmonton and Professor at the Business School, and Dr. Tim Loreman, President of Concordia University of Edmonton.

Visit to Concordia University of Edmonton

Published a new edition of the EBW+ Project Newsletter: http://ebwplus.up.pt/newsletter.

For the second consecutive year, the University of Porto has organised a welcoming event for all scholarship holders selected within the scope of the EBW+ Project. More than 30 students, researchers and staff members who were selected in the second call for applications of this Erasmus Mundus – Action 2 project with Brazil did a stopover in Oporto for three days before reaching their final destinations in Europe.

Some of the scholarship holders will do their mobility periods in Portugal (University of Porto and University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro), but most of them will be hosted by other partner universities of this consortium: Technical University of Valencia (Spain), University of Lille and University of Rouen (France), Technical University Dresden (Germany), University of Rome – Sapienza (Italy), Riga Technical University (Latvia), Uppsala University (Sweden) and University of Malta (Malta).

Video produced by TVU

This stay in Oporto offered them a three full-day programme at the E-Learning Café in Campo Alegre, which included several sessions related to the project and their academic and future professional activities, as for example:

• Useful tools for the academic path: the LaTex tool and study support techniques
• Knowing to live with multiculturalism
• How to efficiently manage the monthly allowance
• How to use the insurance
• Competences and skills valued by employers
• Stress management

Apart from the team of the International Office responsible for the management and implementation of this project, the Welcoming Days 2016 also counted with the contribution of other members of U.Porto for the sessions: Professors Cristina Queirós and Ariana Cosme (FPCEUP), the Erasmus Student Network, and several national and international U.Porto students. Representatives from the insurance broker Atlas Seguros and from the online recruitment platform Jobmatching were also invited to collaborate in this event.

In the last day of their stay in Oporto, scholarship holders had the opportunity to get to know Porto through a walking city tour offered by the City Hall.

International students give "lessons" in Porto schools

The U.Porto has implemented an innovative project with local authorities, such as the Porto City Hall, named Classes without Borders under which it invites international students to present their home country to school children. International Students and Teachers are also able to share with young Portuguese students their experience at UPorto.

More than 40 international students from the University of Porto participated in the "Classes without Borders" project, an initiative promoted by the University and the Porto City Council, within the "Porto de Futuro" program. On the last day of the 2015 edition of the project, a student from Syria and another from India went to show the history and culture of their respective countries to the students of Escola EB 2/3 e Secundária Clara de Resende.

A scholarship holder from the Fatima Alfihri Project in Morocco, who finished this month her master's degree at ICBAS, produced a video about her study experience in Oporto: