By Walter Leal

Imagine a state that so values higher education that it provides tuition-free universities to its students. Imagine a state where the students graduate debt-free. Imagine a state that allocates 10 percent of its overall budget to finance these tuition-free universities.

Imagine a state where 1 percent of the state tax is earmarked for research in all areas of human endeavor, whether it be applied or fundamental, social science or engineering, humanities or medicine.

Welcome to São Paulo, Brazil.

True, Brazil is well-known for carnival, samba and soccer, the national pastime. Soccer fans know Brazil is the only country to win five World Cups, including one held in the United States in 1994. In two years, Brazil will host the FIFA World Cup.

I’m a native of Brazil but was never considered a good soccer player. While attending college in Brazil, I made a living broadcasting soccer games. After all, there are no classes when the ball is rolling. Those who can, play; those who can’t, broadcast!

I remember the first time I set foot in the United States was during the 1976 USA Bicentennial Cup Tournament. Brazil won. So did I — for having a free trip to the land of the free.

Brazil will remain famous for soccer, but it is about time to take notice of the country’s science and technology and its vision for higher education and economy. Brazil is emerging as an economic powerhouse, shifting in less than a decade from an International Monetary Fund borrower to a foreign-aid donor.

Last year, Brazil launched a bold program, Science without Borders, aimed mostly at training 100,000 undergraduate and graduate students overseas. UC Davis was the first university in the United States to sign an agreement with the Brazilian government; now, 156 U.S. universities are partners in this program, including Princeton, Harvard, Yale, three other Ivy League schools and nine out of the 10 University of California campuses.

UC Davis and the city of Davis are now hosting more than 50 undergraduate students from Brazil; hundreds more are coming in the next few years. These future Aggie Ambassadors enrich our campus and community while contributing to the seriously needed international experience of our own students.

As non-degree seekers, they do not take up classroom space. Lastly, tuition and fees that their government pays to UCD will help support California students through a financial aid program. It is a win-win situation.

Science without Borders is a federally funded program focused on science and technology, but soon will go beyond borders. In a short visit to Brazil late last month, Chancellor Linda Katehi agreed on a separate and direct collaboration with FAPESP, the funding agency of the state of São Paulo handling the earmarked 1 percent of taxes for research. The amount used to be 0.5 percent for science and technology, but the state doubled it to fund all areas of human endeavor.

The UC Davis-FAPESP collaboration supports peer-reviewed, mutually beneficial research performed by Brazilian and U.S. scholars with a focus on social sciences and humanities. Indeed, California is only the third state in exports to Brazil ($2.8 billion in goods), but we shall soon become their No. 1 partner in higher education!

It is a mistake to believe that only Brazil has much to gain from the partnership. We, too, have a great deal to learn from them. First and foremost, we would greatly benefit sharing the state of São Paulo’s vision for higher education.

As mentioned, the state invests 10 percent of its budget to run tuition-free universities. The University of São Paulo, one of the premier institutions in Latin America, operates with 97 percent of state funds. By contrast, only 10 percent of UCD’s budget comes from the state of California.

California’s financial future is troubling; further budget cuts loom darkly. In soccer terms, these “yellow cards” to the University of California put pressure on tuition increase. If this trend continues, we soon will be in the “off sides” of affordable higher education.

Yes, we have a lot to learn from São Paulo, Brazil — the land of free higher education.

— Walter Leal is a professor of entomology at UC Davis.

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