The PIE: What is your role within the British Council?

Diana Daste: With the British Council, I have a focus on higher education internationalisation. Aligning with our partners, UUKi for example, we understand the windows where we can disseminate opportunities for the higher education sector not only under the Newton Fund but also with related internationalisation programs at the British Council. I lead the Higher Education and Newton Fund agendas with a strong focus on internationalisation and capacity building at the individual and institutional levels.

The PIE: What is Newton about?

DD: The Newton Fund is the international Official Development Assistance strategy of the British government and it works mainly promoting and strengthening the welfare and the social and economic development of partner countries, supporting projects and partnerships around science, education and innovation. It has three main operation pillars: ‘people’, ‘research’ and ‘translation’ strand.

“Some of them are top tier, but most state universities in Brazil still have a long way to go in terms of internationalisation”

‘People’ means projects around capacity building. Then ‘research’ means ‘hardcore research’ – RCUK mainly operates that strand. ‘Translation’ is about applied research and innovation, how we generate research that is relevant to the local context. At the British Council we operate both People and Translation strands.

The fund has about £75 million per year and it’s been operating since 2014. It will initially go until 2021. There are 15 countries involved and several operators – the British Council is one of them.

The PIE: How did the British Council calls for Brazil-UK partnerships come about?

DD: The calls for internationalisation are British Council funded. We strengthen the capacity of national government institutions and national higher education institutions for them to be better able to establish links with UK counterparts and events under internationalisation agenda. It’s a three or four-year program.

Last year we had the first year of implementation. The first initiative was the launch of the internationalisation call with CAPES, an agency within the Brazilian Ministry of Education.

CAPES has conducted a series of studies to understand what the level of internationalisation in Brazilian universities is. It’s very low – out of a cohort of 250-300 public institutions, around eight would be the elite top-tier of internationalisation, around 16 or 20 getting would be average and the rest really need a lot of support.

In parallel, they are launching an ‘internationalisation at home’ scheme. After Science Without Borders, which was a huge mobility scheme, the government started evaluating the actual impact of those outward mobility schemes in the internationalisation of their own higher education institutions. Rethinking how to best use resources, they are launching this new scheme of internationalisation at home. Universities need to present internationalisation plans as a project to leverage resources under this scheme.

“We have a duty in recognising different stages of development where support is more relevant”

In line with that context, we thought of strategies to help the UK and Brazilian institutions partner up to develop internationalisation plans– hence the first call.

We funded 8 schemes last year, and I have heard excellent feedback from the UK and Brazilian institutions about how this funding supports them in concrete actions and relationships – it does strengthen relationships between the universities involved.

The PIE: What changed in this year’s call?

DD: The second call was with ABRUEM, which is state and municipal universities, so they may be at another level of development. Some of them are top tier, but most state universities in Brazil still have a long way to go in terms of internationalisation.

I think we have a duty in recognising different stages of development where support is more relevant. In the meantime, understanding that Brazil is huge, resources are limited and that institutions need to understand the debates around internationalisation.

We conducted a series of regional workshops on internationalisation in four regions of Brazil. We mapped four key critical subjects – English as a language and English as a medium of instruction, the design of internationalisation plans, mutual recognition of qualifications, and innovation as an opportunity in a moment of crisis and also as an opportunity to do applied research.

“Part of our duty is also to give back information and intelligence to UK universities”

We invited different experts and representatives from the field both in Brazil and UK. The British Council, representatives from Coventry University, University of East Anglia, Glasgow, local universities in four regions of Brazil wanting to generate this policy dialogue, met to lift the discussion around internationalisation.

That has provided us with knowledge and avenues to continue working. We have produced a publication of these debates and we’ll be sharing it in different spaces and targeted networks. Part of our duty is also to give back information and intelligence to UK universities, for example, what’s happening in Brazil, where the opportunities are. The publication will also be hosted on our website.

The PIE: What are the hopes for British Council-funded projects this year?

DD: We want to see a number of outcomes.

The first of them is an actual internationalisation plan, jointly developed with UK institutions, particularly for the first call. That would require regular meetings and conversations and workshops to build these solutions.

“We want to see strategic partnerships and consolidated partnerships going beyond the signature of a MoU”

In terms of activities, they have exchanges, workshops, joint initiatives, for example, Birmingham and Universidade de São Paulo.

Birmingham and Nottingham have a sustained strategic focus working with Brazil and they received grants with a trilateral arrangement with UNESP. These kinds of support allow them to consolidate strategic partnerships and that’s the overall aim of this call.

In terms of partnerships – we want to see strategic partnerships and consolidated partnerships going beyond the signature of a MoU and actually being embedded in different activities across the curriculum of the institution. Other related products may involve adaptation of international curriculum, shared courses, that may depend.

Also, new opportunities for these institutions to work together. For the UK side, it’s an opportunity to start contributing at a strategic level in a moment the international context is opening and welcoming international partners. It’s very relevant and very timely.

“We want to understand how Brazil is preparing itself for inward mobility”

The PIE: Is there a focus on student mobility as well?

DD: Student mobility is just part of this. It will resolve in this, both ways ideally, but it’s part of it. We want to see stronger international relations and stronger research departments working together across both countries. We want to see for example impactful joint publications, and student mobility will, of course, be part of that formula.

The PIE: What other projects are you working on?

DD: This year we’ll continue with funding opportunities and more towards internationalisation of research groups.

We are also updating a guide of courses taught in English in Brazil. We want to understand how Brazil is preparing itself for inward mobility, to receive international students and staff, what are the facilities available. We had the first version in 2016, but the landscape has really changed.

We would like to investigate courses of English, Portuguese for foreigners, housing facilities, anything related to attracting international students. We will also be launching a call on language policies and internationalisation, supporting UK – BR partnerships on applied research, relevant to take policies on English language teaching forward. This call will be launched in mid-June.