Agreements with ECA
The formalization of academic agreements between institutions is the most effective way to expand and strengthen ECA’s internationalization.
The University of São Paulo’s central internationalization body (International Cooperation Office - AUCANI) is responsible for a great bulk of the university’s international activities. However, USP’s Faculties, Schools and other teaching units have the autonomy to sign their own international cooperation agreements.
The School of Communications and Arts has specific internal rules and procedures for formalizing international partnerships, summarized in the following topics:
1. Academic agreements must be formalized by academic staff, who become responsible for coordinating the partnership. Under no circumstances are undergraduate or graduate students allowed to negotiate agreements with foreign institutions.
2. CRInt suggests all international academic agreements appoint both a coordinator and a vice-coordinator, thus avoiding any disruptions in case of staff mobility or leave.
3. ECA has templates of draft agreements in several languages (Portuguese, English, French, German, Spanish and Italian), which must be filled in by the coordinator of the partnership at ECA and negotiated with the foreign institution.
4. Once the terms of the agreement are established between the institutions, the documentation must be approved by the corresponding departmental council.
5. Once approved, all documentation must be sent to CRInt and, subsequently, to the Technical Administrative Council (CTA) of ECA and, finally, to the Attorney General of USP. At this stage, CRInt should be sent:
- minutes completed in Portuguese and in a foreign language,
- letter of approval from the department council and
- supporting statement by the partnership’s coordinator including the main reasons for the formalization of the agreement.
6. After approval in all instances at USP, the documents will be signed and sent for signature by the foreign institution. Once the signed documents are received back the agreement shall become effective.
We request that ECA professors who wish to sign agreements with foreign institutions contact CRInt (crint-eca@usp.br) for further details.
