(by Filipe Albessu Narciso | reviewed by Kiara Neves) – September 22th, 2021

The University of São Paulo was founded in 1934. Since then, the institution has expanded nationally and internationally, becoming one of the most prestigious universities in Brazil, Latin America and the entire world. To manage its international impact, USP’s International Cooperation Office, also known as Aucani, was established with a mission to develop and implement policies that promote the university’s internationalization. Read more about USP and Aucani in our article.

The University of São Paulo (USP) was founded in 1934, when five established faculties merged into what would become one of the most prestigious universities in Brazil and Latin America. USP has been considered by many university rankings one of the world’s best universities, having an outstanding reputation among the academic community worldwide.

Located in the state of São Paulo, the university has campuses that spread from the capital city of São Paulo to seven other cities from the state’s countryside: Bauru, Lorena, Piracicaba, Pirassununga, Ribeirão Preto, Santos and São Carlos. USP is active in research and teaching across the full range of the sciences and humanities. Accordingly, the university offers a great variety of undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as many extra-curricular activities. As a public state institution, USP does not charge tuition fees for its undergraduate, Masters or Doctorate degrees.  

Among its major objectives, USP has a mission to internationalize; it seeks to raise its international profile and develop international cooperation. To coordinate and manage this objective, USP’s International Cooperation Office, also known as Aucani, develops and implements policies that foster international academic cooperation.

Aucani aims to enhance USP’s ever growing global presence. Therefore, it creates the conditions for USP to disseminate its prolific research to an international audience and ensures that its academic body is familiar with and benefits from the most innovative discoveries from around the world. One of its most impactful methods of international cooperation is supporting exchange agreements with other reputable institutions around the world. 

With over 87% of full-time faculty members, USP relies on a team of professionals from faculty to staff members that are committed to ensure the university is a center of excellence in human resources and production of knowledge. The institution’s research output is strongly evident in its many articles published in national and international journals, reports, chapters and books. In Brazil alone, the research output of USP represents around 22% of the country’s scholarly production.

USP also fosters the transfer and application of knowledge for the benefit of society. The university’s community members usually maintain a connection with industries, companies, health centers, movements and initiatives that are actively developing projects or products and applying new techniques, technologies and expertise.

The University of São Paulo has a considerable structure : it consists of 48 schools and specialized institutes, 4 physical museums, 4 major hospitals and 48 physical libraries. Moreover, it also provides digital libraries, orchestras, choirs, cultural and scientific communication centers, a theater and a movie theater, a publisher, radio stations, a newspaper, a sports center, technological parks and astronomical observatories.

As a consequence of the university’s engagement towards internationalization, each school has its own local International Office that receives support from Aucani in their efforts towards greater internationalization.

Through enabling the mobility of students, researchers, faculty and staff members, establishing cooperation strategies between USP and its international partners, providing information about research and mobility opportunities for the wider USP community or selecting, organizing and disseminating information about programs and initiatives related to academic cooperation, Aucani is a fundamental piece of the university’s international influence. 

USP International Diffusion Center

And it shows results: USP has consistently appeared in important university rankings. In the 2021 QS World University Rankings, which evaluates world class institutions in terms of teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook, it ranks well within the top 120. Other rankings, such as the 2021 Webometrics Ranking of World Universities, which presents University of São Paulo as the 32ⁿᵈ university in the world with respect to presence, impact, openness and excellence, and the 2021 Times Higher Education Latin America, in which USP appears as the second best university in Latin America, also prove how influential the University of São Paulo is worldwide.

USP has more than 1900 international agreements signed with several institutions all over the world. The university welcomes people from all continents and stimulates this process via network and consortia. Aucani makes sure not only to handle these international academic agreements in which the university participates, but also to assist its international students, faculty members and researchers before and during their stay at USP so that, at the university, students and faculty members are able to enjoy a multicultural easygoing environment with people from different cultural backgrounds.