Internationalization: the fourth mission of the university

Abstract

Fernando Seabra Santos and Naomar de Almeida Filho, in the book "The fourth mission of the University: university internationalization in the knowledge society", published in 2012, bring to the fore the foundation of an optimistic perspective on the role of internationalization in the protagonism of the University in society knowledge. Organized in six chapters, the book itself, co-edited by the Press of the University of Coimbra and Publisher of the University of Brasília, is the result of a process of university internationalization. In this sense, the authors start from three reasons that justify the growing importance of internationalization, as mission of the University: massification of access to higher education; globalization of the economy and society; process of European integration. From this context, the missions of the university, the spaces - European and Ibero-American - integrated knowledge, the context of higher education in Brazil and the concepts and modalities of internationalization are addressed throughout the book.