The mission statements of the federal universities and the projection of internationalization in Brazil. (November 2020) - Guimarães, Felipe Furtado
Abstract: Higher education institutions declare their intentions in mission statements. In the last decade, Brazilian universities have developed and expanded their internationalization plans and offer of English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) courses as a strategy to internationalize. Inspired by Bocanegra-Valle (2019) study on the mission statements and the projection of internationalization of universities in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), this study aims to expand this discussion by focusing on the geopolitical Global South (Sousa Santos, 2018). Particularly, it aims to analyze the internationalization process of Brazilian universities made visible in their institutional mission statements. The institutional sites of 62 universities were analyzed, though the term "international" was found in only 7 mission statements. The analysis of mission statements also revealed that the same values of internationalization underlie their mission statement, indicating a view of internationalization aligned to social/cultural and political perspectives, suggesting that the motivations to internationalize are to contribute/promote social and cultural development, mutual and intercultural understanding, citizenship, social and community development. By directing the analysis to the geopolitical Global South, zooming in the Brazilian scenario, the study concludes that there is a mismatch between beliefs and actions in that context.