About

About Institutional Project of Internationalization – Mackenzie Presbyterian University

The graduate programs are relatively recent and began in the 1990s. In under 20 years, however, progress has been remarkable: 12 graduate programs (PPGs) in Human, Health, Business Administration, Finance, and Exact Sciences. In the latest CAPES evaluation, four of these programs received grade 6 and 7, two were given grade 5, five were graded 4. A program started in 2021 has not yet been evaluated by CAPES. The average grade of MPU’s programs was 5,09. MPU’s Institutional Internationalization Project (“Projeto Institucional de Internacionalização” – PII) is aligned with the Institutional Internationalization Plan, which sets medium- and long-term internationalization guidelines and strategies for all levels of education, with a marked focus on Graduate studies.

The graduate programs have contributed to the development and consolidation of our university’s research competence areas. An examination of the competencies developed over almost 20 years shows that MPU’s activities have attained excellence levels in the following themes: Sustainable Architecture and Development; Arts, Language and Communication; Nanotechnology and Nanomaterials; Science of Human Development in neurosciences, health and education; Innovative Management Practices; Radioastronomy and Astrophysics; Digital TV Systems and Artificial Intelligence. A diagnosis of research activities at MPU in 2014-2022 in in terms of internationalization shows that interaction with researchers and research centers abroad has been strongly based on the actions of programs faculty members, through specific research projects.

These programs include research groups that show intense interaction with collaborative groups and networks abroad, with projects and activities supported by domestic and international funding agencies and entities, such as FAPESP, CNPq, CAPES, the EU Commission, NASA, US Air Force, Norwegian Research Council, Ministero dell Istruzione dell Università e della Ricerca (MIUR), Newton Fund of the Royal Society, Colégio Doctoral de Tordesillas, Erasmus Mundus Program, etc. Such funding shows the domestic and international embeddedness of our faculty members in the development of relevant scientific research. Another important highlight in terms of the funding of collaborative projects and activities with universities abroad is MACKPESQUISA, and in-house support agency of MPU’s sponsor, the Mackenzie Presbyterian Institute (MPI). MACKPESQUISA provides financial support to visiting professors at MPU, post-doctoral support for program’s professors, journal and review publication fees, academic mobility of students and professors to partipated in international conferences. The fruits of these internationalization efforts are duly noted in the present PII’s sections and reflect support from both Foundation FAPESP and MACKPESQUISA.

The objective of the proposal is to continue to gain ground with important institutional support schemes based on what has been accomplished in the past. Drafting of this PII relied on a strategy of targeting the actions of PPGs towards themes reinforcing shared actions and cross-disciplinarity. As such, the PPGs competencies were grouped into scales, or dimensions, according to the physical, human, social or biological phenomena researched, leading to the selection of four scales that define the themes with which MPU’s programs align: Nano- and Micro-Scale Scale; Social Scale, Human Scale, and Cosmic Scale. These scales are not mutually exclusive: knowledge gained in one can be used in another. For example, the use of Nanotechnology-based sensors (Nano- and Micro-Scale) can be applied to Cognitive and Behavioral Neurosciences (Human). We provide, next, a brief summary of each theme under this project.

1. Nano and Micro-Scale Scale: functional materials and devices.

This theme includes Nanotechnology research projects. This research is not limited to the development of new materials and their applications, but also addresses use in research aligned with the Human Scale and legal implications thereof. Therefore, the Materials Engineering and Nanotechnology, Electric Engineering and Computing, Science of Human Development, and Political and Economic Law programs are part of this theme.

2. Human Scale: brain, cognition and behavior.

One of the main challenges that Neuroscience faces is integrating the knowledge gained with those stemming from areas such as Business Administration and Management Control and Business Finance, as well as using technological resources to map cognitive and behavior patterns and using geo-referencing systems to generate specific thematic maps that will contribute to the characterization of children’s mental health in various regions of Brazil. This theme addresses the foregoing challenges with participation of Developmental Disorders, Business Administration, Management Control and Business Finance, and Geospatial Sciences and Applications.

3. Social Scale: languages, cities and culture.

Human and social development today takes place in an increasingly inter-cultural world that raises challenges for social life, marked by mobility, increased diversity and intolerance, the emergence of new forms of identity and otherness, insufficient promotion and protection of civil rights, degradation of the urban space and the environment. This team covers such social phenomena, addressing them by means of research on the development of inclusive social business, learning communities, artistic languages and technologies, solidary economy analysis and promotion, public policymaking for socio-economic development and socio-spatial inclusion, languages teaching and the promotion of inter-culturality, the appreciation of the unique cultures populations in states of displacement, contact and acceptance, the promotion of public spaces and conservation of the urban, historic and social heritage, the recovery of vulnerable areas. To this end, this theme will include the Administration, Architecture and Urbanism, Political and Political and Economic Law, Linguistics and Literature and Education, Arts and Cultural History Programs.

4. Cosmic Scale: Earth in the Universe.

Human beings in the 21st Century use all manner of space technology. This is why the Earth must be understood from the vantage point of Space. For example, the Global Positioning System (GPS) uses Space Geodesics, a technique based on radioastronomical observations of quasars, to generate a reference that enables geophysical studies. Space Climate allows predicting atmospheric changes caused by solar activity with an impact on the technological infrastructure both at ground level and in space. MPU has been a pioneer in Brazil when it comes to Radioastronomy, Solar Physics and Un-Earth Relationships Physics research since the 1960s, when it created the Mackenzie Radioastronomy and Astrophysics Center (“Centro de Rádio Astronomia e Astrofísica Mackenzie” – CRAAM), and since 2013 with its Graduate Geospatial Sciences and Applications Program (CAGE).

Through internationalization actions, the construction of new instruments, the development of sensors on electromagnetic spectrum bands, and Artificial Intelligence and Big Data will be explored in partnership with the Graduate Materials Engineering and Nanotechnology and Electric Engineering and Computing programs. This cross-disciplinary focus allows each theme’s actions to address complementary aspects across PPGs, blending together each one’s core competencies to assist in the development of applications in the others. This cooperation is expected to stand in the future in research projects that may be submitted to domestic and international support agencies.

The Institutional Internationalization Project’s general and specific objects, from the angle of MPU as a whole, are as follows:

a) To serve as an evaluation instrument for the university’s priority Research competencies;

b) To enable Strategic Planning for MPU’s Graduate Programs and Research, with a focus on their embeddedness in an international context;

c) To reinforce Research quality by means of bilateral collaboration with international centers and researchers, increasing participation in research networks;

d) To crystallize and improve MPU’s standing as a benchmark institution for other countries in its areas of research competence;

e) To build the awareness of the academic community (professors and students) of the need to validate their results in internationally qualified conferences and journals;

f) To foster bilateral academic mobility;

g) To foster the internationalization of Graduate Degree syllabi;

h) To implement the languages policy for PPGs in line with CAPES-specified metrics;

i) To increase the number of Doctoral Colleges and Joint-Advisorship and Double-Degree Programs with excellent PPGs abroad;

j) To provide a relevant international experience to an expressive number of students in graduate programs involved with this project’s themes;

k) To improve the quality of the intellectual production of PPG professors and students in international co-authorships, so that MPU may increase its international visibility and experience;

l) To increase bilateral academic mobility of professors and students, that is, to attract researchers from abroad and send our own researchers to other countries.

The themes under this project are consistent with the aforementioned objectives, and the indicators are consistent with the actions, which will enable ascertaining the proposal’s progress. Finally, it is worth emphasizing that this project’s execution has the potential to bring about a positive transformation in the standing of Research and Degree Graduate Studies at programs, imbuing them of an indelibly international and cross-disciplinary nature.

Click on the link below to check the UPM Institutional Internationalization Plan:

Institucional Plan of Internationalization - Mackenzie Presbyterian University (MPU)