The Federal University of Latin American Integration (Unila), also known as University of Mercosur, is a higher education institution created in 2010 by the Brazilian government with a view to greater integration of the countries that make up the South American bloc. It is located in the city of Foz do Iguaçu, as this city is located in a tri-national border area, between Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay.
As its name suggests, Unila is focused on an integration perspective, having as one of its merits main the fact that it is officially bilingual, with the adoption of the Portuguese language and the Spanish language as languages institutional. Despite being focused on Mercosur, the institution receives thousands of students from all over Latin America, with students from practically all South American countries.
To enter Unila, the student must undergo the selection processes of their respective countries. In the case of Brazil, admission occurs through the National Secondary Education Examination (Enem) and enrollment in Sisu (Unified Selection System). The exception in this case is the Music and Architecture and Urbanism courses, which have their own selection methods based on specific skills.
The courses offered by Unila, for the most part, have peculiarities that differentiate them from their counterparts in other universities, since their training is centered on different knowledge, customs and structures of societies Latin American countries.
In all, there are 41 courses, and 24 of them have their start approved at the end of 2014 starting in 2015. Among the modalities offered are the following courses: Anthropology (focused on Latin American Cultural Diversity); Biological Sciences (Ecology and Biodiversity); Renewable Energy Engineering, Geography (focused on the Territory and Society of America Latina), History (from Latin America), Literature (Arts and Cultural Mediation) and the newly created course in Medicine.
In addition to undergraduate courses, the University of Mercosul also offers postgraduate courses Lato sensu (specialization) and strict sense, in the case of some master's degrees offered. At the moment, there are still no postgraduate courses at the doctoral level, which should take place in the near future, depending on the necessary improvements in terms of infrastructure.
Unila had the origin of its procedures with the creation of the Bill sent to Congress by the then president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Subsequently, the project was approved unanimously in all spheres that passed, from the commissions internal to the Chamber of Deputies and the Federal Senate, being sanctioned by Lula himself on January 12, 2010. Classes began on August 16 of the same year, temporarily counting on the facilities of the Itaipu Technological Park.
Although it still lacks some demands, such as the completion of its new facilities on the campus of Foz do Iguaçu, and the need for greater investments in scholarships and general aid for students, Unila is already an important university in America Latin. It is expected that, over the next few years, the institution will be able to exercise the its ambition to promote greater academic and scientific integration of knowledge Latin Americans. The institution's motto is: “a university without borders”.
By Me. Rodolfo Alves Pena
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/geografia/universidade-mercosul.htm
