São Paulo – Registration is open until November 29 for refugees, stateless persons and humanitarian visa holders in Brazil that want to attend the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp). Forty-eight seats are open for courses such as Biomedicine, Pedagogy, Administration, Law, International Relations, Social Sciences, Nutrition, Physiotherapy, and others. The announcement [in Portuguese] details the courses and number of available seats. The admissions process is free of charge.
The seats are distributed across the campuses Baixada Santista, Diadema, Guarulhos, Osasco, São Paulo, Reitoria, and Zona Leste. On December 14, at 4 pm, Unifesp will release in its website the applications eligible for the test phase. Applications from people that already hold a degree from Brazilian public or private higher education institutions will not be accepted.
Applicants must have attained the legal recognition of their condition from the Brazilian government. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), a stateless person is someone who is not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law. Since August, Brazil has started accepting requests for Brazilian nationality from stateless persons in the country.
According to the UN agency, refugee is someone who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion
Humanitarian visas are visas granted by Brazil in order to fulfill their international obligation to protect refugees from persecution.
Exam
The test will be applied on January 18 and will run for 4 hours, from 2 to 6 pm. Applicants will take an objective test and write an essay, and the final grade will be the sum of the two tests. The objective test will feature 25 multiple-choice questions, each containing five alternatives. The essay is mandatory and will be accepted only in Portuguese.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
