The Director of Universidad.es presented the Foundation to a delegation of around 20 Brazilian Rectors on July 6 in the headquarters of the Spanish Rectors Conference (CRUE). These Rectors represent institutions that are members of two universities’ associations.

On the one hand, the delegation represented the Brazilian Association of State and Municipal Universities (ABRUEM), and on the other hand the higher education institutions of the State of Paraná (APIESP). Màrius Rubiralta, Secretary General of Universities of the Spanish Government, welcomed the representatives on July the 5th, and they also had the opportunity to meet with other Ministry of Education officials.

During the CRUE meeting, three Rectors of the Brazilian delegation delivered a short presentation of the Brazilian higher education system as well as the current situation in their fields of action: the State of Paraná along with the State and Municipal universities respectively. These universities constitute, together with the Federal and Community universities, the Brazilian public higher education system.

The Chairman of the Spanish Rectors Conference (CRUE), Federico Gutiérrez-Solana, set out the role of the referred institution in the Spanish higher education system and underlined some of the most relevant performances achieved over the last years and the efforts carried out by Spanish universities to join the so-called “Campus of International Excellence” programme.

Brazil ranks number 7 on the list of countries that send international students to Spain (nearly 3,000 in 2008-09), out of which 204 are beneficiaries of a programme set up by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and AECID (Spanish Agency for Development and International Co-operation). The increase is quite remarkable as there were only 1000 Brazilian students in Spain in 2000. Although most of them are Master’s and PhD students, more and more Brazilian and Spanish universities sign bilateral agreements that foster short stays at undergraduate level.
 

Universidad.es is a public sector foundation that aims to promote the Spanish university system throughout the world. The foundation was set up by the Spanish government with the support of Spain’s universities, the regional governments and other institutions. Universidad.es was formally constituted on 23 December 2008.