The process of internationalisation of higher education in Brazil: the impact of colonisation on south-south relations

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article presents a study that analyses interviews of African students participating in the PEC academic mobility programme, so to gain an understanding of the individual and corporate experience of living and studying in Brazil. However, our analysis also demonstrates a highly significant finding that the historical process of colonisation, experienced for centuries by the Great South, has impinged on the outlook held by individuals from the Great South, who tend to understand that the Great North is the desirable option. Consequently, this attitude has directly affected South-South relations and the cooperation between developing and emerging countries. The work of Franz Fanon, who is a pivotal figure in the process of decolonisation, serves as a framework for our analysis because it both conceptualises and demonstrates the symptoms of psychological violence in a colonised context. As it will become clear, this has ramifications for the process of internationalisation and globalisation of Higher Education.