The whole world can now access 24/7 information from UEM, one of the best learning institutions in Latin America
One important step was taken to a more strategic and comprehensive internationalization process of the State University of Maringá (Universidade Estadual de Maringá – UEM). The institution now has an international website (www.uem.br/international), with contents available in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. This way, users from all over the world have 24/7 access to the most important information from UEM, one of the best universities in Brazil and Latin America. According to Julio César Damasceno, Rector of UEM from 2018 to 2022, ‘our society will be more and more intensified in terms of integration and reliance on all corners of our planet’.
Rector of UEM, Julio César Damasceno (on the microphone)
To Marcio Cassandre, coordinator of the International Cooperation Office (Escritório de Cooperação Internacional - ECI), the website is the visiting card for international exchanges. ‘The increase of UEM's internationalization requires better communication with people from other countries who search for information about our university. The website provides visibility and proximity to future students, researchers, and institutions, but also complies with our strategic planning on the improvement of internal and external communication of internationalization in terms of intensification and learning of remote exchanges’.
Through two outreach projects from the Department of Modern Languages (Departamento de Letras Modernas - DLM), the original content from the website in Portuguese was translated, revised, and published in English and Spanish. The teams are made up of students, faculty, and staff from DLM, the Languages Institute (Instituto de Línguas - ILG), the Language Course (Bachelor’s degree in Translation) and the Secretariat, coordinated by professors Aline Cantarotti (English) and Viviane Cristina Poletto Lugli (Spanish). The prospect is that news from UEM will be regularly translated to both languages in order to reach a global scope. A glossary is also being developed.
What does it look like?
Structurally, the content of the international website is divided into six macro topics, available in the higher menu: Campuses, Teaching, Research, Outreach, Health, and Institutional. Important features in these sections are the institutional video, the university's performance on the most important world rankings, the infrastructure and the undergraduate and graduate courses description, as well as UEM's summary through relevant numbers.
At the launch, professors Fabiano Burgo, accountable for the department of International Agreements, and Luciana Cabrini Simões Calvo, responsible for the Internationalization at Home at ECI presented the website. ‘The international website gives visibility to UEM and shows its relevance in the international scenario. It also promotes and facilitates building partnerships between UEM and international universities’, highlights Cabrini.
Among the website's development guidelines, Burgo highlights the ease of editing content simultaneously by several people (such as undergraduate course coordinators) and ‘scalability, namely the ability to handle an increasing amount of information, and the possibility to grow both in content and structure’.
The website also has a concern with responsiveness, that is, it allows the internet user to navigate easily and with a pleasant look, regardless of the device in use, for instance a smartphone, tablet, or computer. According to André Scarate, advisor of institutional communication at UEM, the website is dynamic, always revised and updated. ‘Our focuses are the institutional content, information presentation and the process of the website's maintenance. We aim to enhance our academic reputation and structure for Teaching, Research, and Outreach on a global scale’, explains Scarate.
The look and feel of the website is pleasant whether accessed by cell phone, tablet, or computer (desktop or laptop)
Translated by:
Felipe Lisboa
Proofread by:
Milena Alonso