Universidade Aberta (UAb) is the public Portuguese distance education university. Pioneer in distance higher education in Portugal, it was founded in 1988 and it has been promoting actions related to higher education and continuous training. It has also contributed to developed important know-how that allows it to be the biggest provider of online courses in the country.

At present UAb is considered to be amongst the European mega-providers of e-learning, playing a prominent role in 1st and 2nd cycle (graduation and master’s) educational offering. It also has PhD programs. UAb’s Pedagogical Model is based on e-learning and on the intensive use of new tools for online communication, collaboration and learning.

Part of its duties are to conduct research, to support the participation of their teachers and researchers in scientific institutions and to promote cooperation and cultural, scientific and technical exchanges with similar national and foreign institutions.

The UAb currently hosts research units: LE@D (The Distance Education and e-Learning Lab – research center dedicated to distance education, innovation and ICT); the CEMRI (Research Centre on Migrations and Intercultural Relations), and the extension of the Centre for Research in Art and Communication (CIAC), University of Algarve.

UAb promotes the exchange of knowledge with the academic world, through the institutional hosting of PhD students and masters, research fellows, sharing of scientific equipment, acting also as the host institution of national and international scientific scope projects, led by researchers from UAb.

UAb (Open University Portugal) offers 48 e-learning courses including 9 post-graduation courses, 12 undergraduate courses, 20 Master degree courses and 7 PhD courses to 6400 students, 5080 undergraduates, 14% of them foreign students. UAb also provides lifelong learning study programs. All the courses are taught with a unique Virtual Pedagogical Model.

For more information please visit http://portal.uab.pt/

 

TEAM:

UAb consistently builds what can be considered a long tradition on migration and intercultural relations studies. The Masters in Intercultural Relations, was the first in Portugal and is now in its 24th edition. A PhD Course in Intercultural Relations is also part of UAb offer in close cooperation with CEMRI, the Research Centre on Migrations and Intercultural Relations, is a scientific research unit accredited and funded by the Science and Technology Foundation (FCT), created in 1989, one year after the establishment of UAb. CEMRI host the Hight Education Network for Intercultural Mediation – RESMI. CEMRI researchers have been working with migrant and migrant students in Portugal and abroad in previous or ongoing projects. This project is, in this way, relevant, sharing best practices in the pursue of further knowledge and field information so it can be made available and used to influence decision makers in the process of adopting sustainable public policies in migration and mobility issues.

The key persons in this project have extensive experience in the fields of Migrations and Intercultural Relations (specifically in Intercultural Communication, Migrations and Cultural Diversities and Health, Culture and Development) and Management.

Mário José Filipe da Silva (PhD in Language Policy) is a University Assistant Professor and Deputy Coordinator of CEMRI – Research Centre on Migrations and Intercultural Relations, Research Unit. His research interests are Language Policy and Management, Linguistic Diversity and Intercultural Communications, with a particular focus on the learning and knowledge of linguistic management processes.Has been participating in European projects since 1996. Former Vice President of the Camões Institute, (2010-2012) until its extinction and establishment of the new Camões, Institute of Cooperation and Language, where he was Senior Advisor to the Presidency of the Institute, for the Portuguese language abroad (2012-2015); Member of Board of Directors of the Portuguese Institute of the Orient (IPOR), in the Macau Special Administrative Region (R.A.E.M. – P. R. China), appointed by Portuguese Foreign Office (MNE) – Camões Institute (1999-2002); Head of Division at the Directorate of External Cultural Action Services of Camões Institute (1998-1999), where he was involved in the promotion and publishing of Portuguese, authors in foreign languages; Professional and research interest linked in the last 15 years to Language Policy and Language and Cultural Diversity.

 

Joaquim Gronita: psychologist; master on Health Communication; Specialist in Psychology (public examinations – Decree-Law n. 206/2009); and PhD in Psychology, specialty on Clinical and Health Psychology. Assistant Professor at UAb; professional training in e-learning and online learning pedagogical methods. He collaborated with different institutions of higher education both in graduate and post graduate courses, since 1999. Currently, is also Professor at College of Health of Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal. Training on Family Therapy, at the Portuguese Society of Family Therapy. He was worked as a Psychologist in an NGO for persons with disabilities (1990-2009), having implemented and coordinated an Agency of Early Intervention in Childhood for 9 years. Researcher at Centre of Studies on Migrations and Intercultural Relations (CEMRI) in the area of Health, Culture and Development, since 2007; and scientific vice-coordinator since 2016.

 

Rosa Maria Sequeira is Professor at the Humanities Department of Open University, Lisbon, Portugal. Her research areas are Intercultural Communication, Comparative Studies and Literary Pedagogics. She was the scientific coordinator of CEMRI – Research Center of Migrations and Intercultural Relations in Open University between 2013 and 2016. She was a visiting Professor at Vienna University in 2003. She has mentoring and teaching experience at graduate and post-graduate levels and belongs to scientific committee of post-graduate programs.

 

Lúcio Sousa is an assistant Professorat the Department of Social Sciences and Management (DCSG) of the Universidade Aberta, Portugal. He is an integrated researcher at the Center for Migration Studies and Intercultural Relations (http://cemri.uab.pt/), responsible for the Research Group on Migrations and Cultural Diversities. He is also an associate researcher at IELT – Traditional Literature Research Institute (https://ielt.fcsh.unl.pt/). Currently, his main topics of research are ethnography of East Timor and Southeast Asia, history of colonial-era anthropology, and forced migration and refugees in Portugal. He is the coordinator of the project ” Integration of refugees in Portugal: role and practices of the host institutions – PT/2017/FAMI/151″ (2017-2019).

 

Natália Ramos, Associate Professor at the UAb, Department of Social Sciences and Management, Lisbon, Portugal. Scientific Coordinator and Researcher of the Center of Studies on Migrations and Intercultural Relations, CEMRI (UAb). PhD in Psychology, Intercultural and Clinical Psychology, University of Paris V, Sorbonne and specialized in Film Anthropology, EPHE, Paris, Sorbonne. Professor in the Masters and PhD in Intercultural Relations of the Open University. Coordinator of the Research GroupHealth, Culture and Development (CEMRI). She has been a teacher, researcher and published in several fields of Psychology, Communication and Education, particularly oriented to intercultural, migratory and health issues. In this scope, she is the author and director of several written and film works. Has coordinated and participated in national and international research projects, in particular in Europe.

 

Mário Carrilho Negas, assistant professor of management is the Head of the Department of Social Sciences and Management at UAb. He received his PhD in Management – specialization in Information from the UAb and MSc in Economics and Management Science and Technology from the ISEG (Technical University of Lisbon). Negas’s research interests are in three areas. One area deals with the adoption of systems and information technology in SMEs. Another area deals with strategic planning of information systems. The third area deals with the management of Innovation and SME’s innovative capability. He teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses focusing management and information system management. He has co-authored three books (Microsoft Excel; principles of management). He was course Coordinator of the Management Course at Universidade Aberta, from 2010 to 2016. He has organized several conferences, workshops, seminars, and other events. From 2014 to 2016 Vice-president of the Associação Portuguesa para o Empreendedorismo (Portuguese Association for Entrepreneurship). He is an active member of two locally based voluntary organizations, and He performing volunteer work in community-based organizations, and co-organize and collaborate in training sessions to empower of locally based organizations leaders.

 

All key persons from UAb/CEMRI are content and syllabus producers and contribute to Strategy Paper and  Development of Online Course Curriculum. Specific tasks are assigned to key persons but involve contributions of other CEMRI members. Key persons are handing their expertise to the syllabus of the online course, to the content implementation, and didactic and pedagogic aspects of the online course. Existing documents, data and existing policies for the strategy paper are also get the contribution of all CEMRI members in collaboration to the research and analysis by Maria José Sousa and Joaquim Gronita.

 

UAb is the co-leading partner in Strategy Paper and  Development of Online Course Curriculum and Train-the-trainer Camp Tool Kit for Peace Envoys. Universidade Aberta did not conduct on-campus activities, nor take part in building a campus network, as it is an open university that offers online education without a campus. It did not send students to the training activities. However, it is still a crucial partner in this project because of its invaluable experiences of many years in creating online education curricula and platforms to offer online courses.