The Teaching and Learning Support Space (EA²) at Unicamp, linked to the Pro-Rectorate for Undergraduate Studies (PRG), held the 15th edition of the Welcome Program for new Unicamp professors this Monday morning (14). According to the EA² coordinator, Sílvio Consonni, the program's objective is to welcome and assist new professors in their integration into the academic and institutional life of the University.
“We want to present the new faculty with institutional resources and mechanisms that favor their professional performance, with an emphasis on teaching activities,” said Consonni. “In addition, we will discuss the dimensions of teaching and learning processes, student participation in pedagogical projects, and current demands regarding the role of university teaching,” he explained. Unicamp has had 273 professors hired in recent months; at least 80 of them participated in the activity held this Monday in the Raízes Auditorium, in the Basic Cycle building.
Rector Paulo Cesar Montagner said during the ceremony that Unicamp is currently experiencing the greatest generational transition in its six decades of history, and drew the attention of the new faculty members to the direction the University should take in the coming years.
Montagner recalled that the University has already begun the process of implementing new courses – citing as examples International Relations and Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, which have just been included in the 2027 entrance exam. According to him, other new courses are being evaluated, and with them, the consequent increase in the number of professors, students, and staff.
Montagner also mentioned strategic projects of the University such as the implementation of HIDS (International Hub for Sustainable Development), a technological innovation district aligned with the sustainable development goals of the United Nations (SDGs-UN).
The general coordinator of Unicamp, Fernando Coelho, said that the new professors will find a University very different from the one that welcomed him more than three decades ago. “When I joined here, I was only the second Black professor in the history of the Chemistry Institute,” he said. “Today, thanks to the inclusion policies adopted in recent years, we have a much more diverse University,” he added. “The University is a collective construction, and this is the legacy that you will carry forward.”
The Vice-Rector for Undergraduate Studies, Mônica Cotta, said that the quality of a university depends on the quality of its professors. “We must guarantee an excellent education for our students,” she stated. “It’s always good to have new people at the University, because they bring enthusiasm and a clearer vision of the outside world, and this should improve our ability to listen to and engage with the external community.”
The welcoming program opened with a presentation by Coletivo Canário, a group of students who are part of the Student Artist project at the Institute of Arts at Unicamp. The activity is scheduled to last three days, during which the new faculty members will learn in detail about the workings of the pro-rectorates and receive guidance and information about career paths, planning, student profiles, and entrance exams.
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