A Partnership of Equals? Academic Collaboration between the United Kingdom and Brazil

Abstract

In 1988, the British Council and the Brazilian federal agency responsible for funding higher education, the Co-ordenaçao de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior (CAPES), signed an agreement to promote and facilitate academic collaboration between universities in the United Kingdom and Brazil. From the Brazilian perspective, this agreement represented an opportunity to establish joint research programs and other activities that moved beyond traditional forms of north-south cooperation to link academics from both countries in a genuine and mutually beneficial partnership. Drawing on case study research of collaborative academic projects financed under this agreement, this article addresses the extent to which these initial aspirations have been realized. The research confirms that constraints arising from historical and contemporary factors continue to pose barriers to genuine partnership. However, it also highlights the limitations of adopting a purely macrolevel analysis, emphasizing the complexity of, and variability between, individual projects. Factors that appear to contribute to the degree of success of the projects investigated are also identified and explored, and it is concluded that the British Council–CAPES agreement is facilitating the emergence of “advanced neocolonial partnerships” in academic collaboration between the two countries.