David Willetts could not have more emphatic in his lecture at Canning House yesterday: Latin America is a key partner for the UK. In his view, partnership can ‘benefit citizens’ and ‘enrich’ the lives of UK students who spend time there. He identified four countries in particular – Brazil, Colombia, Chile and Mexico – and singled out the RCUK-Fapesp agreement for particular praise. I mentioned our own agreement with Fapesp (designed to promote researcher collaboration between Bath and Sao Paulo state universities including USP) at the Let’s Talk event yesterday afternoon. I agree with his view that the Brazilian government’s prescient Science Without Borders scheme will serve as a prototype for research, work placements and skills without borders. The University is well-placed in Brazil to take advantage of these opportunities and to generate mobility opportunities for our students and staff. We should also bear in mind the importance of English language training for the sporting mega-events that will take place in Brazil in 2014 and 2016. I can imagine our English Language Centre could be very well positioned to play a role here and also in Colombia, Mexico and Chile.
The importance of Latin America – updates from David Willetts
Posted in Updates.
– November 29, 2012
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I am glad to hear that Latin America is still part of the Agenda. As a Latin american myself I look forward for more partnerships between the University of Bath and universities in these countries as they have so much to offer!
Dear Paola,
We cannot afford not to engage with some of the finest instituions in Latin America. There is, as you say, much world-class science in the universities there and USP is arguably the finest of them all. We continue to promote engagement with Colombia and Mexico. I hope you will join the Latin America Experts Group at Bath.