Office for International Affairs: History and objectives

The objective of the Office for International Affairs (OIA) is to provide support to faculty, staff and administrative departments of the university in their relationships with international institutions, regardless of whether they are actual academic partners or whether they are institutions that encourage and promote academic exchange. The OIA was created in 1996 and is therefore a reasonably recent asset in the history of the university.

The OIA administers all aspects of institutional contracts and agreements, offering support to students on exchange programs (both students from UFBA who go abroad and those who come to study here), receiving representatives of foreign institutions, representing UFBA at events that bring together different organs of international collaboration, and organizing and providing support for events related to international exchange, among other activities.

The present staff of the OIA is dedicated to continuing the work that was already being carried out, as well as widening the range of its activities in harmony with the action items proposed by the dean. These proposals identify the university’s need to broaden its international relations, strengthening and solidifying those already in operation and encouraging new openings for collaborative projects. In order to carry out such a program adequately, the OIA has been active both internally and externally.

The OIA believes that, among the many aspects of international interaction developed by UFBA, two adapt themselves adequately to the characterization of collaboration: those in which UFBA benefits from the collaboration and those in which UFBA is the benefactor. The first example is preponderant when the external center is more qualified and able to help in the development of the sector of UFBA with which it will interact. The second example predominates when the international center is less qualified and contact with UFBA may lead to training. In contacts with developed countries, which have constituted most of the collaborative efforts established until now, the first example is naturally preponderant. However, when establishing collaborative contacts with institutions in under-developed countries, such as some countries of Africa, Latin America and parts of Asia, which have fewer resources than are available here, the second example would tend to be more evident.

The OIA believes that its main contacts are to be found in academic circles in Brazil and abroad. However, it is understood that contact should also be sought with non-academic institutions that maintain values that can positively promote the international interactions that it proposes. While academic interests remain the principal priority of the OIA, useful contacts with productive sectors may and should be stimulated.