UK university urges Brazilian students to work harder

The University of Southampton, UK, has complained about the lack of dedication from Brazilian students in the Science Without Borders Program (SwB). Last Saturday, scholarship-holders at the institution received an email from the SwB UK saying it had been notified by the university of “the large number of complaints about attendance and engagement.”

“It is very disappointing to us to learn that performance has been low, and that [students] have not worked hard. […] This, however, does not hold true for everyone. I would like to ask [those in this situation] to work harder and fulfill all commitments made” the message reads.

SwB UK also requested from the university a list with the names of scholarship-holders who are insufficiently diligent. The University of Southampton regarded among the world’s most renowned universities for research. In 2013, it welcomed 38 Brazilian students as part of the initiative and is yet to receive 33 others.

Denise Leal, an engineering student who had her name mentioned on the list, said, “[I] found [the message] offensive, as I have shown engagement, but I see their point. Most students in the program do not engage very actively because the [Brazilian] government doesn’t demand anything from them in exchange. If you want to study, you go ahead and study. If you don’t, you travel, because the government doesn’t require any results. The money granted is more than enough, so they’d rather travel and skip classes, as there’s no roll call,” she declared.

When questioned by Agência Brasil, SwB UK sent us an email saying that the message “should not have gone to all the students at the university. This was an administrative error,” adding that "UK Universities regularly tell us how diligent, hardworking and high-calibre SwB students are. Many have won prizes and awards, whilst others have been featured in the media both in the UK and Brazil; Brazilian students are also helping to build long-term links and research partnerships."

The Science Without Borders Program was launched in 2011, with the purpose of granting 100 thousand international scholarships in the fields of technology, health, the exact sciences, mathematics, chemistry and biology, engineering, up to the end of 2014. In the program’s next stage, from 2015 to 2018, over 100 thousand scholarships are expected to be granted.

The problem of students that use scholarship money for non-academic purposes is not restricted to the UK. Medical student Mário Vasconcelos, who took part in the program by going to a German university, said that he would “take whichever tests we wanted. There were no demands from Brazil. All I had to prove was my return,” he revealed, adding that, during his stay abroad, he “met a lot of people who didn’t attend a single class.”

Carolina Marques, who went to Australia, declared that “over 50 percent of scholarship-holders do not take their studies seriously. That was so much the case that when I left Australia I felt embarrassed to say I had participated in the program. I ended up avoiding being among Brazilians, because many of them openly said they were there to travel and use up the money from the scholarship.”

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira