Recently, the president of CAPES/MEC, Denise Pires de Carvalho, participated in the World Conference on Chinese Language with the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) in Beijing. In her speech, she addressed higher education and artificial intelligence and emphasized that the topic will require governments and teachers to constantly update their knowledge and take effective action to prepare students for the challenges of the digital age.

“The world has been undergoing increasingly rapid technological transformations, which require profound behavioral adaptations, but also reflection on the possible deleterious effects on the human species,” she said.

Denise reported that there are currently 15 Confucius Institutes in Brazil and that 50 higher education institutions in China offer Portuguese courses to more than 5,000 students. Last year, Brazil and China signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Academic Mobility in the Teaching and Learning of Portuguese as a Foreign Language, which provides for a series of cooperative actions. Currently, Brazil-China cooperation covers about 26 Brazilian universities, 75 Chinese institutions, and more than 80 agreements.

(Source: Gov.Br, on November 18)