A press release issued by the UNILA Start-up Committee , states that on this date there will be an international colloquium entitled "Education for Latin American Integration", in which specialists from different parts of the world will discuss higher education and regional integration. It was also announced that the first chair of the institution will be announced at the end of August, followed by the launching of at least nine more chairs by December, 2009.
In addition, the VII International Meeting of the Mercosur University Forum (FoMerco) is scheduled for September in the UNILA installations, and for the month of October there will be a Latin American Course of Higher Education Policies and Assessment (CLAEPPAES), a joint effort with the Universidade Federal de Paraná (UFPR) .
A ground-breaking project
Established in 2007, UNILA is an innovative proposal that Brazil has created for the entire region. It involves the creation of a public university in an area of more than 37 hectares in Foz de Iguaçu, a city near the point where the borders of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay meet. According to Dr. Helgio Trindade, coordinator of the initiative, the intention is for the new institution to have 10,000 students and 500 professors, half of whom will come from Brazil and half from other Latin American countries.
In an interview published in May, 2008 in the Argentina magazine "Densidades", Dr. Trindade stated that " although UNILA is a Brazilian university, its mission will be, through shared knowledge, to contribute to the integration of the region". Financing comes from the Ministry of Education of Brazil, "but its priority commitment will be to Latin America", he said. Moreover, the classes to be given at UNILA will be in both Spanish and Portuguese, with which, according to declarations of President Luis Ignacio “Lula” Da Silva, one is "fostering a pole for integration through training students from throughout Latin America" stated EFE last June 12 .
Courses to be offered by the university will be at both the undergraduate and graduate levels in the humanities and the sciences. According to Dr. Trindade, the objective is to focus on "areas of common interest for the development of Latin America (…) that respond to the current and future needs of the region". To this end, the Start-Up Committee of UNILA was created, made up of specialists of various countries who have the task of defining the "model of the university, its academic structure, and its political-pedagogical project", he stated.
As for its physical structure, the design of the buildings has been carried out by the famous Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, still active at 101 years of age.
by UNILA
Press release "UNILA begins academic activities in August"
http://www.mercosur.int/t_ligaenmarco.jsp?title=off&contentid=854&version=1&channel=secretaria
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http://actualidad.orange.es/internacional/lula_anuncia_universidades_brasilenas_para_latinoamericanos_y_africanos_311735.html
