PUCRS is the only university in south of Brazil at the award known as the “Oscar for Education”
IDEAR – The Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Entrepreneurship and Innovation of PUCRS – has made it to the finals of Reimagine Education Awards, an award known as the “Oscars of Education”. The award is organized by the British company Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) and rewards innovative approaches that enhance student learning outcomes and employability, offering $50,000 in funding to the overall winners. The winning projects will be announced Dec 9-10, at a gala ceremony in London, UK.
In 2019, 1507 educational innovators from 39 countries submitted their projects to 16 different categories. Just under 15% of the projects make to the finals. According to the organizing company, three Brazilian projects have made it to the finals, PUCRS being the only institution in the south of Brazil. Idear is running in the category Presence Learning & Teaching Award (for teaching and classroom learning initiatives).
At the December event, the Dean of Undergraduate Studies, Dr Adriana Kampff, and Idear’s Academic Coordinator, Dr Ana Cecilia Bisso Nunes, will present the project in seven minutes. The way Ana Cecília sees it, the international recognition gives us encouragement and earn visibility to the innovative work of Idear.
On the other hand, Dr Naira Libermann, Coordinator of Idear, claims that talking about entrepreneurship and innovation is, in fact, a competitive edge. “However, receiving international recognition as an icon for doing innovative work is a guarantee that we are going the right direction,” she celebrates. To her mind, our University is even more consolidated as an innovative institution and such recognitions embody our mission. “With this, once again, we can see that we are delivering innovation and entrepreneurship to society,” she adds.
For Dr Kampff, making to the finals of the Reimagine Education Awards is an affirmation of the academic excellence of the university in a global University context. “Strategies to include Entrepreneurship and Innovation into the curriculum, by means of specific programs, events, courses and Idear-coordinated actions, along with the entire ecosystem of innovation of the University, allow us to provide high-qualified education to our students, as we can look into contemporary problems in our society and provide effective social impact solutions”, she concludes.
Idear is a laboratory seeking to develop entrepreneurship as a competence that involves the mobilization of knowledge, skills and attitudes, the exercise of creativity, critical thinking and the exercise of autonomy. It aims to develop the entrepreneurial attitude in students and the community in general, in an effort to encourage them to be agents of change and social impact. This is materialized through lectures, informal sessions, training programs, seminars, meetings, courses, consultancy services, Torneio Empreendedor (Entrepreneurial Tournament), among others.
The British Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) specialized in higher education and has become globally known for the QS World University Rankings, considered one of the most popular and relevant university grading systems in the world.
