New study overseas programme improves US Brazil relations

New study overseas programme improves US Brazil relations
Published:  13 Apr at 2 PM
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and US President Barack Obama have praised a student exchange programme named Science Without Borders, reported the Christian Science Monitor.

Even though the programme doesn’t resolve their differences concerning currency wars, nuclear issues and the United Nations’ Security Council, it is one area of cooperation which highlights how both countries are aware of the need for improved ties.

The international exchange programme aims to send 100,000 students from Brazil to undergraduate institutions in the US for one academic year of fully-funded study. It was put through the Brazilian legislature in March last year after Obama visited Brasilia. Within months, it had received large amounts of private sector investment and has since seen students enrol in almost 100 universities across the US.

While attention often centres around policy disputes between Washington and Brazil, programmes such as Science Without Borders show the ways how cultural and educational ties between the two countries’ rising middle classes are growing. Brazil has made huge strides in the past 10 years, moving around 40 million people out of poverty into middle class.

The Science Without Borders programme is just one of a number of initiatives to help Brazil achieve the standards of development required to create an innovative and growing economy, a vibrant job market and bring services such as electric power to all areas of the country.