PEC-G: An Analysis of the Student Program-Graduate Agreement at the state university of Londrina - Brazil - in the Perspective of Students

Abstract

The Student-Graduation Agreement Program (PEC-G) is one of the instruments of educational cooperation that the Brazilian government offers to other developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin Americ a. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MRE) and the Ministry of Education (MEC) are mainly responsible for the overall coordination of the Program, while the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are responsible for the reception and training of students. In t his sense, this article has as general objective to understand the Program of Students-Agreement of Graduation (PEC-G) at the State University of Londrina (UEL) from the perspective of the main social actors involved: the foreign students. Due to lack of space in this article, the position of the managers of the program in the UEL and in the MEC was left out. As for the research methodology, the Case Study and the Bibliographical Study were used, with a qualitative approach, the instruments of data collection were questionnaires and interviews. Among the conclusions of the study, it is possible to emphasize the students' deficiency in learning the Portuguese language before arriving in Brazil; the difficulty of living and the lack of resources to support themselves in Brazil; the need for investments by UEL in socialization actions of new students who enter each year at the University.