Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina

 Developed to be a first experience for international visitors before arriving in Brazil, and an important tool in the University’s internationalization process, the Brazilian Portuguese Survival Course arose from a clear need: a large number of international students at UFSC enter and leave the institution without learning to speak Portuguese. With this in mind, the staff from the Office of International Relations (Sinter) united their ideas and experiences with the technical expertise of the Office of Distance Education (Sead) to develop a 100% asynchronous Portuguese language course, fully adapted to situations that take place at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC).

The objective of SINTER and SEAD is to train international students, faculty and staff, who will carry out mobility and academic cooperation activities at UFSC, by offering an online, self-instructional course that will enable them to communicate in basic Portuguese. The course seeks to help in the welcoming process of the participants when they arrive at UFSC and to awaken their interest in learning the Brazilian language and culture.

The initiative, it is believed, is unprecedented and had to be created from scratch, since there were no similar courses at other universities, according to both Offices. It was developed by content experts, Portuguese/English Language teachers, and professionals from SEAD and SINTER.

For the pedagogue Joyce Regina Borges, who helped develop the course content, the main concern was to select the contents that would in fact be essential for the first contact with the Brazilian Portuguese language. She also lists some of the challenges in creating the course: being able to include some cultural aspects for a better understanding of the language; providing audio for as much of the content as possible to facilitate familiarity with the pronunciation; and being able to do all of this in a 20-hour course.

The structure of the course consists of five content modules, each comprising three lessons. At the end of each lesson, a “Practice Time” session proposes automated feedback activities to ensure students’ learning and autonomy and to check their achievements.

Division of the course into modules (Image: course screenshot).

The modules also feature the “Cultureme” session, which introduces some aspects of Brazilian culture, and the “Tip Time” session, which brings useful information to help students handle the new language.

In this journey, students will not be alone. They will receive help from Diogo, Natália and Lincoln, characters inspired by real UFSC staff members. They will also have the company of Angela, Frederick and Paloma, fictional characters who, throughout the course, share their experiences as foreign students at UFSC. All the audios of the characters in the course were recorded by SINTER staff members (Bruno Wanderley Farias, Caroline Finatti, Diogo Robl, Guilherme Carlos Costa, Luciana Miashiro Lima and Paula Eduarda Michels).

For the Secretary for Distance Learning, Luciano Patrício Souza de Castro, every distance training initiative must be seen today as a great and proven opportunity to efficiently and effectively achieve real learning results. In this sense, the Brazilian Portuguese Survival Course, as a self-instructional course, is engaging in centering the learning on the participants through the use of technologies that facilitate course completion. The course contents, educational proposal, visual aids and navigability are impact factors that guarantee learning success for those willing to survive in Brazilian Portuguese.

“The course is visionary, totally innovative, and may attract students from all over the world who wish to learn Portuguese at UFSC”, says Professor Lincoln Fernandes, Secretary for International Relations. He presents data on the increase in the number of international students at the University as a result of remote learning. Before the pandemic, UFSC had approximately 250 international students on its campuses per semester. Now, with the virtual activities, the sum exceeds twice that number of students.

Characters interact with students for a better experience in the course (Image: Course screenshot).

The course is now in its testing phase. An initial version has already been released internationally and, according to SINTER, many foreign partners are looking forward for their students to register in the course. Professor Gisele Orgado, a graduate of UFSC, is responsible for conducting the pilot course with Portuguese students at the University of Birmingham, in the United Kingdom.

After this first test, the course will be reviewed and will undergo adjustments for improvements. Once everything is in place, it will become available on the Moodle platform to students around the world. “It is important to point out that this course is aimed at English-speaking people, but the idea is to soon adapt it to speakers of other languages: Spanish, French, German, Italian, Mandarin, Russian, among others” Lincoln says.

More information about the course can be found on SINTER’s website.

Translated by SINTER/UFSC

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On 30 November, the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) promoted the official launch of the UFSC Observatory, a platform for transparency and management support that integrates, in a single environment, data and information from various domains of the University.

Representatives of the Ministry of Education, the state government, the National Association of Directors of Federal Higher Education Institutions (Andifes) and the Santa Catarina State Foundation for the Support of Research and Innovation (Fapesc) participated in the online ceremony.

The Rector Ubaldo Cesar Balthazar, the Vice-Rector Cátia Regina de Carvalho Pinto, prorectors, secretaries, school deans, heads of departments, undergraduate and graduate program coordinators, students, faculty, and administrative staff from UFSC also participated. The web conference was streamed on YouTube.

The online ceremony was opened by the Rector, Ubaldo Cesar Balthazar, who greeted those present and shared an overview of the Observatory. “The purpose of this platform is to provide an overview of the most varied topics, relevant not only to university management but also to the academic community, control bodies and society as a whole.” The Observatory debuts this Tuesday with more than 300 indicators on 21 areas of activity at UFSC, and will be gradually expanded.

Dream and courage

UFSC’s Secretary for Innovation, Alexandre Moraes Ramos, said that the Observatory is a project linked to a dream and a courage. The dream of former Rector Luiz Carlos Cancellier de Olivo, who, upon taking office, expressed his desire to create a tool to modernize management and provide transparency to UFSC’s actions, and the courage of Rector Ubaldo Balthazar to move the project forward, bring the team together and implement the proposal.

Alexandre Ramos also stated that the Observatory will support medium and long-term strategic decisions to make management more efficient and prepare UFSC to be competitive at a global level. The Secretary for Innovation recalled the fact that UFSC was recently placed among the three most innovative universities in Brazil and stated that the moment is one of digital transformation.

Fernando Richartz, Secretary for Planning and Budget, presented some panels and data from the Observatory, which launched with 106 decision support dashboards and more than 300 indicators on 21 areas of UFSC, including teaching, research, outreach, administrative management, types of admission, among others. He mentioned UFSC’s initiatives to give back to society, informing that the outreach actions involved more than 3 million people from 2017 to 2021. He also highlighted the availability of UFSC’s budget data on the platform, meeting a demand from society and from governmental and non-governmental control bodies for transparency in the use of public resources allocated to the University.

Next steps

The Secretary also presented what the Observatory’s next steps should be, including automating the platform’s feeding processes as much as possible; incorporate new panels and themes according to user interaction; increase partnerships with other institutions and provide cross-referencing of information with other databases; and foster the internationalization of the Observatory, presenting the platform in other languages and incorporating Artificial Intelligence mechanisms. Fernando Richartz also informed that the Observatory will have a physical structure, located at the Rectorate Building Hall, for displaying the panels.

Then, the floor was passed to the representatives of the entities present. The president of FAPESP, Fábio Zabot Holthausen, told the Rector that having a tool like the Observatory is every manager’s dream. FAPESP provided the “seed capital” for the project, funded through resources from a Call for Proposals in support of the State’s Technological Innovation Centers (NITs). “We are very happy when we see the use of resources bringing innovation, bringing effectiveness and efficiency,” said Zabot.

Professor Gustavo Balduíno, Executive Secretary of Andifes, highlighted that UFSC managed, in this period of difficulties, after several months of pandemic, to present a quality project. “The resources allocated at the university bring concrete results to society,” said Balduíno. He informed that Andifes intends to launch the Ecograd system shortly, a panel that will gather information about all federal universities in the country.

Social Accountability

The State Controller General, Cristiano Socas da Silva, representing the state government, congratulated UFSC for carrying out the project. A graduate of the institution, he called the Observatory “a magnificent platform”. “UFSC is already a source of pride for being a reference in research, teaching and outreach, now it presents this model of good management practices and public transparency”, he said. The Controller also mentioned initiatives by the state government to make management transparent. “Social accountability is the best and least expensive of controls,” he said.

Eduardo Gomes Salgado, Secretary for Higher Education at the Ministry of Education, pointed out that, in addition to transparency, the Observatory brings an immense opportunity for research on UFSC’s own data. “UFSC’s governance and transparency are growing and the governmental and non-governmental control bodies have noticed this”, he said.

Vice-Rector Cátia Regina de Carvalho Pinto said that, as a manager, she was very pleased to participate in the launch of the Observatory. She highlighted that UFSC has been innovative over the years, especially during the pandemic period. “We continue dedicating ourselves to science, knowledge and the defense of life”, said the Vice-Rector.

At the end of the virtual ceremony, the Rector Ubaldo Balthazar made an analogy with the world of theater: “Open the curtains and let the show begin”, said the Rector. He mentioned the former Rector Cancellier again. “It was during his administration that everything started and, with a lot of work and competence of the teams involved, in our administration we implemented this project”.

According to the Rector, the Observatory represents a new era in university management, “which increasingly strengthens our mission, which is to produce, systematize and socialize philosophical, scientific, artistic, and technological knowledge, broadening and deepening students’ education for the professional practice, critical thinking, and national and international solidarity with a view to building a just and democratic society and also guaranteeing quality of life”.

Watch the launch ceremony.

Translated by SINTER/UFSC.

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The Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) was a finalist in the Startup Awards 2021 and was ranked among the three most innovative universities in the Brazilian innovation ecosystem. There were over 44 thousand indications for the 15 award categories, and three finalists were chosen for each category based on the largest number of votes. In the University category, UFSC competed for the award with the Universidade de São Paulo (USP) and the Pontífica Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUC-RS), with USP taking first place. The trophy award ceremony took place on 19 November 2021.

The motivation to participate in the event began with the SINOVA UFSC Startup Mentoring Project, which connects the university to the innovation ecosystem in Santa Catarina. For Professor Alexandre Moraes Ramos, Secretary for Innovation at UFSC, the recognition of the award allowed for a historical retrieval of the innovative and entrepreneurial culture existing at the university.

According to Professor Ramos, the project, which started with a small unit on the Florianópolis campus, is now present on all UFSC campuses, with the objective of promoting ideas and creating innovative startups. He stresses that the project is exclusively aimed at the academic community, and that many researchers feel welcome to participate and promote new business ideas with high social impact.

The SINOVA UFSC Startup Mentoring Project seeks to encourage business ideas arising from research projects or ideas from the UFSC academic community to be mentored by market and academic experts so that they become high-impact innovative solutions. According to Ramos, there is a virtuous circle in this process and each idea proposed by a student, a professor or a staff member at UFSC can give rise to a startup that grows and generates knowledge, wealth and jobs.

The recognition of UFSC as one of the most innovative universities in Brazil demonstrates that actors in the country’s innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem perceive the university as an engine of technological development, sought to create solutions that meet the demands of various sectors of civil society. The Office of Innovation (SINOVA) is also responsible for managing the intellectual property assets from the institution’s organic body, and has been working on prospecting projects with the potential to become startups.

Closer to society

In 2022, SINOVA plans on pursuing an even closer relationship with innovative projects that have as goals reducing poverty, dealing with social vulnerability and achieving a sustainable balance with the environment. With the aim of applying the human knowledge generated within the university  towards constructing business ideas with significant social impact, the first edition of SINOVA UFSC Social Mentoring launches in November. The event is a new branch of SINOVA UFSC Startup Mentoring focused on business ideation aligned with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.

The idea of the SINOVA UFSC Social Mentoring project is to connect UFSC with the communities, thinking and generating ideas for the eradication of poverty and protection of the environment. Ramos emphasizes that the project follows the same line of reasoning as a business ideas competition, but focused on innovation and social entrepreneurship.

With information from the Office of Innovation (SINOVA).

Translated by SINTER/UFSC.

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The Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) is the 4th best federal university in the country, according to the latest Índice Geral de Cursos Avaliados da Instituição (IGC), an index published by the Brazilian Ministry of Education (MEC). Among all universities, UFSC was ranked 5th best, with a score of 4.14 in the continuous IGC ‒ in a scale from 1 to 5. This places UFSC as one of the 15 Brazilian universities ‒ all public ‒ to reach the maximum band score (5) in the IGC.

The data, released last month, are from the year of 2019. The top four positions are occupied, respectively, by the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp), the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) and the Universidade Federal de São Paulo (Unifesp).

Assessment

The IGC is a quality indicator that assesses Higher Education Institutions. Its calculation considers the average grade obtained by the institution’s undergraduate programs and graduate programs (master’s and doctoral degrees) in the latest national evaluations, as well as the distribution of students among the different levels of higher education.

The National Institute for Educational Studies and Research (Inep) highlights that the results of the 2019 edition were only calculated in 2021 due to a new data collection for graduate programs. A total of 2,070 public and private institutions were assessed in this edition.

See the full results on the Inep website.

Translated and adapted by SINTER/UFSC

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In an ordinary session, held on 30 March, the University Council (CUn) of the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) approved the Exceptional Supplementary Calendar for the academic year 2021 for undergraduate and graduate programs. The counselors also approved, by a large majority, the opinion of the counselor Antônio Alberto Brunetta for the continuity of online teaching activities during the first and second academic semesters of 2021.

The University Council approved an extended calendar in view of the fact that the current pandemic situation is serious and there is no security for resuming on-campus classes in the near future, but the situation will be analyzed over time. “By the beginning of the second academic semester, we will be able to analyze the scenario again and take the debate back to the CUn, in case the population’s vaccination progresses faster and the pandemic numbers improve,” said Vasconcelos.

With CUn’s decision, the first academic semester of 2021 for graduate programs will begin on 14 June and end on 2 October. In the proposed academic calendar, the second semester is scheduled to begin on 25 October 2021 and end on 26 March 2022, with a holiday break period between 19 December 2021 and 30 January 2022.

For graduate programs, the academic calendars are different according to the type of course: semester courses will last for 15 or 16 weeks; quarter courses will last for 10 to 12 weeks; and two-month courses will last for 8 or 9 weeks. The suggested starting date for all types of graduate courses is 5 April 2021.

Check the calendar here.

Translated by SINTER/UFSC

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The Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) is the eighth best university in Latin America and the third best among Brazilian  federal universities, according to the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities. The Ranking is an initiative of the Cybermetrics Lab, a research group belonging to the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).

UFSC is ranked 352th in the global ranking, and it is only behind the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG) among the national federal institutions. Other two national institutions are also among the top ten universities in the Latin America ranking: the Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho (Unesp) and the Universidade de São Paulo (USP).

Created in 2004 and present in more than 200 countries, the study evaluates approximately 31,000 Higher Education Institutions around the world. It analyzes webometric and bibliometric indicators, including visibility (web contents impact); excellence (top cited papers); and transparency or openness (top cited researchers).

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The Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) is ranked 23^th among the best universities in Latin America, 8^th  among Brazilian Universities and 4^th among the federal education institutions in Brazil, according to the QS World University Rankings: Latin America 2021 published on 11 November by the British company QS Quacquarelli Symonds.

“Once more, UFSC is recognized by its competence, its faculty and staff, and its students’ quality on all education levels. To be among the best institutions in Latin America and the forth best among federal universities in Brazil is a source of great pride, and it reveals the certainty of how essential and fundamental we are to society”, says the Rector Ubaldo Cesar Balthazar.

>> Check UFSC figures according to the QS Top Universities

The Secretary for International Relations, Lincoln Fernandes, highlights that the results are consistent with the institutions’ efforts in seeking quality. “Again, this position in the QS World University Rankings shows that our University remains firm and resolute in fulfilling its mission of excellence and diversity. Despite the situation caused by the pandemic and the reduction of financial resources, we continue to work hard and remotely so that the Brazilian higher education continues to be recognized worldwide”, he stresses.

The Universidade de São Paulo (USP) is the best ranked in the country, taking second place in the ranking, followed by the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp), in fifth place. Among the federal universities, the Universidade Federal de Rio de Janeiro ranks ninth, the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais 15th and the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul 19th.

>> View the complete ranking HERE

The ranking analyzed 400 institutions in 20 Latin American countries and at the top of the list is the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Institutions were evaluated based on 11 indicators: academic reputation (30%), employer reputation (20%), faculty to student ratio (10%), staff with PhD (10%), international research network (10%), citations per papers (10%), papers per faculty (5%) and web impact (5%).

View the full list of 400 Latin American institutions on the QS Top Universities website.

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The Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) has extended the suspension of its on-campus teaching activities at all education levels until 22 May 2021. The new deadline was established by the Ordinance no. 379/2020/GR, published last Monday, 9 November.

The suspension is for any on-campus academic activity, including meetings and defenses, as well as for the in-person technical and administrative activities on all UFSC campuses, except for health, security and other urgent and essential services. The remote learning activities remain authorized in this period.

All exceptional support and assistance programs from the Prorectorate for Student Affairs (PRAE), the Prorectorate for Undergraduate Studies (PROGRAD) and the Prorectorate for Graduate Studies (PROPG), offered due to the COVID-19 pandemic, are also extended.

The new deadline may be changed upon occurrence of new events.

The Normative Ordinance no. 371/2020/GR of 28 August 2020 is revoked by Ordinance no. 379/2020/GR.

The Times Higher Education (THE) has published on Wednesday, 28 October, the results of the World University Rankings 2021 by Subject, listing the broad areas with the best performances in the top universities in the world. The Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) was one of the 1.512 universities evaluated and it was best ranked in the areas of Health and Education. In both subjects, UFSC was ranked 301-400 overall and was among the eight best universities in Brazil.

The THE is a British magazine that publishes news and articles related to higher education. Annually, THE releases one of the most comprehensive, balanced and reliable set of rankings in the world. The rankings are based on 13 indicators that measure an institution’s performance across four areas: teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook. In the last edition, published in September, UFSC was placed among the eight best universities in the country.

“The importance of this type of ranking for institutional strategic planning should be highlighted. They serve as points of orientation so that we can identify our strengths and work with those areas of knowledge that need closer attention. Undoubtedly, internationalization plays a key role in strengthening these areas by choosing strategic partnerships, for example”, says the Secretary for International Relations at UFSC, Lincoln Fernandes.

See how UFSC was ranked in all subjects:

• Ranked 301-400 in Education
• Ranked 301-400 in Clinical & health
• Ranked 401-500 in Arts & humanities
• Ranked 501+ in Psychology
• Ranked 501-600 in Business & economics
• Ranked 501-600 in Social Sciences
• Ranked 601-800 in Computer science
• Ranked 601-800 in Engineering
• Ranked 601-800 in Life sciences
• Ranked 801-1000 in Physical sciences

To view the full results of the THE University Rankings 2021 by Subject, click here.

Translated by SINTER/UFSC

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The Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) is among the eight best Higher Education Institutions in Brazil, according to the Times Higher Education (THE) international ranking, published on 2 September.  This is considered one of the main university rankings in the world.

UFSC is ranked in the 601-800 band in the overall ranking and, in comparison to last year’s edition, it has maintained its position in all aspects. Five other Brazilian universities are ranked in the same band ‒ Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Universidade Federal de São Paulo (Unifesp), Universidade Federal de Sergipe (UFS) and the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio). In the first and second position among Brazilian universities are, respectively, the Universidade de São Paulo (USP), ranked 201-250, and the Universidade de Campinas (Unicamp), ranked 401-500.

Although the universities are ranked in bands after the 200th position, the Secretary for International Relations at UFSC, Lincoln Paulo Fernandes, explains that the results, when analyzed, place UFSC as the fifth best higher education institution in the country, and the third best among federal universities. “In 2016, we started to analyze the methodologies and the indicators of these university ranking systems and we observed that there are specific criteria for each of these rankings. In regard to the THE ranking, analyzing the results of 2021, we could see that, among the federal universities, UFSC is only behind UFRGS and UFMG. The first two are state universities of São Paulo. So we are very happy to say that, according to this ranking, UFSC is the third best federal university in Brazil”, highlights Fernandes.

The ranking evaluated more than 1,500 universities from 93 countries. It is based on 13 indicators that measure an institution’s performance across four areas: teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook. The University of Oxford, in England, was ranked the best university in the world for the fifth consecutive year.

Translated by SINTER/UFSC

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