A new initiative by the Office of International Affairs will foster student exchanges with universities across the globe — sending Brown students to far-flung campuses and bringing more foreign students to College Hill. Though the program is not yet finalized, the University has already established partnerships with universities in Brazil, China, France, India, Mexico, South Africa and Turkey, according to the September update to the Plan for Academic Enrichment.
"It will be very beneficial to training our students abroad and bringing the best and the brightest from around the globe to Brown for a month or two," Matthew Gutmann, vice president for international affairs and a professor of anthropology, wrote in an email to The Herald.
The new partnership should also enhance graduate-level research abroad.
"Robust graduate student mobility is usually a good indicator of thriving research collaborations between Brown and our partner institutions abroad," Shelley Stephenson, director of international initiatives, wrote in an email to The Herald.
"For a lot of the graduate students in the history department, our research takes us overseas," said John Rosenberg GS. "If the exchange allows us to go to a place like Brazil, where we need to do research, and actually have some time to get research done, then I think we'd be really interested in it."
Matteo Riondato GS, president of the Graduate Student Council, said he thinks many students will be interested in the opportunity because graduate-level coursework often requires fieldwork.
"I am a foreign student myself," he said. "I come from Italy, and I can say that yes, for sure, people would be interested in coming to Brown."
