China Agricultural University (CAU) and São Paulo University (USP) in Brazil are set to launch joint postgraduate courses in September for 100 students.
According to Feng Weizhe, Director of the Office of International Cooperation and Exchange at the Chinese university, the CAU-USP Integrated Institute course was officially approved by the Ministry of Education of China in May and aims to build a world-class international talent training base in agriculture.
The institute will offer professional courses such as agronomy, seed industry and public management.
The key subjects will be prepared jointly by the professors of the two universities and also taught jointly. Admissions are part of China’s national postgraduate plan.
Feng said that the institute will increase the number of relevant courses and enrollment scale year by year and will integrate the training of international students from other world-leading universities in agriculture.
Chinese and foreign students will be able to attend the same classes and take courses simultaneously, pooling resources from global universities in the agricultural field.
“The establishment of the CAU-USP Integrated Institute is a step forward in the cooperation between China and Latin American countries in the area of education and will take the higher education cooperation of both parties to a new stage,” said Feng.
Bilateral trade between the two countries exceeded US$100 billion for four consecutive years, with China being Brazil’s largest trading partner for 13 years.
At the same time, Brazil is also China’s biggest investment destination in Latin America. China annually imports a large amount of agricultural products from Brazil.
CAU ranks at the top of Asia in this segment and is the world leader in the field of breeding maize and other agricultural crops.
USP is a leading institution in agricultural disciplines in Latin America, CLBrief reported.
