The 2023.1 academic semester for distance and on-site courses at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) will begin on Monday (06). To mark the opening of this period, a series of 13 face-to-face inaugural classes will be held at the Presential Support Centers in the metropolitan area of Natal/RN and in the interior of the state. The calendar of events starts on March 9th, with classes scheduled for the poles in Guamaré/RN, Macau/RN, Currais Novos/RN and São Gonçalo do Amarante/RN.
More than 1,300 openings for UFRN distance learning bachelor’s and bachelor’s degree courses were offered in selective processes in late 2022 and early 2023. According to the Pedagogical Coordinator of EaD/UFRN, Lilian Giotto Zaros de Medeiros, “the goal of the inaugural class is to welcome the students who are entering the ten distance learning courses at UFRN and to invite them to become part of the institution’s history”. Also according to Lilian Zaros, the intention is to introduce the University to them so that they can get to know the institution and the courses offered, including post-graduate courses.
Professors who coordinate courses and manage distance education at the University will give the inaugural lectures with the central theme: “EaD at UFRN: let’s be part of this story”. Francimeire Cesário, coordinator of the Presential Support Center of Marcelino Vieira/RN, spoke about the expectation for this moment: “we already have a welcoming meeting planned for March 11 and the inaugural class scheduled for March 18.
From the Seridó Region, the coordinator of the Currias Novos/RN Presential Support Center, Edneide Pinheiro, evaluates what this academic period will be: “my expectation is for a productive semester, that we are driven to action and persevering in our purposes, we live a new era in EaD at UFRN, with the entrance of new students who will add to the existing ones, besides the tutors who will integrate our team, making the centers alive and active”, she concluded.
On the SEDIS/UFRN and the hubs’ profiles on the social networks, you can check out the entire schedule for the on-site inaugural classes.
Valdic Luiz da Silva and José Alberto Batista were students in the first class of the distance learning Chemistry course at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), in Nova Cruz/RN. They graduated in 2010 and, in the following years, they met again in the Master’s and PhD courses in Chemistry, also at UFRN. The long academic partnership was reissued, now, they are part of a group of ten researchers at the University that created a new use for the ash of the sugarcane bagasse in natura.
The patented technology is a process for obtaining a compound called silica, a material that is present in several products such as paints, cosmetics, adhesives, and other materials. José Alberto highlights the EaD contribution in his academic trajectory: “it was a milestone of change in my life, I used to be a RN state public servant, I used to work in the maintenance of Sesap Hospitals and, if it wasn’t for UFRN, through SEDIS, to believe in this new way of teaching, I wouldn’t have been able to finish my graduation, since I used to work 24 hours shifts, daily, 6 days a week”.
Today, besides being a researcher, José Alberto is a public servant in two states: Paraíba and Rio Grande do Norte. “I have substantially improved my professional and financial life, and I owe it all to UFRN’s initiative in creating these EaD courses,” he concludes in a tone of gratitude. “EaD contributed a lot to my master’s and doctorate post-graduation, because it is a modality that allows us to study virtually and be accompanied by tutors and, sometimes, by teachers,” says Valdic Luiz, a professional colleague and partner in this journey in search of knowledge.
Valdic analyzes the employability generated from the access to distance learning higher education. According to him, most students who graduate from UFRN in the EaD modality are successful in public competitions, “I myself am an effective teacher in the Paraíba state public system, and I am currently a coordinator of the Nature Science and Mathematics area, besides being a high school Chemistry teacher”, he emphasized when talking about his professional career.
For Luciene Santos, a professor of the Graduate Program in Chemistry at UFRN, who also coordinates the University’s distance Learning Chemistry course and the research group, of which Valdic Luiz and José Alberto are members, “these students were very dedicated during the entire process of their academic life, both in the undergraduate, master’s and doctorate levels and, in this study, which generated two patents, they were the main authors, it was a great pleasure to guide them and the University reaped many fruits with their work.
Bruno Cássio – Communication Advisor of SEDIS/UFRN.
The distance learning courses at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) have contributed to building successful academic careers. We will highlight some recent examples registered in two different Presential Support Centers. The first one comes from Currais Novos/RN, in the Seridó Region of the state. The other successful case is that of two former students from the Nova Cruz/RN hub. In places distant from major urban centers, distance learning allows students to optimize the time available for work and study and, at the same time, awakens in the student a sense of organization of tasks.
At 32 years of age, the former student of EaD Chemistry, from the Currais Novos/RN branch, Renato Dantas de Medeiros, celebrates the results of his doctoral research: “we developed a new gynecological formulation, in the form of hydrogel, for the treatment of vaginal candidiasis”. This type of infection is caused by the Candida fungus, which lodges in the vaginal region, causing itching, secretion and inflammation. Also according to the researcher, “the formulation contains as active pharmaceutical ingredient (API), the extract of the bark of the imburana stem, a tree native to the caatinga biome, concentrated in Northeast Brazil.
The discovery had the patent application filed with the National Institute of Intellectual Property (INPI) and consolidates a trajectory started in the undergraduate course, completed in 2014, at UFRN, with a sandwich period at the University of Coimbra (UC), in Portugal, through the International Graduation Program. Today, Renato Medeiros reaps the fruits of his dedication to the study routine. Currently, he is a doctoral student in the Technological Development and Innovation in Drugs course at UFRN and is doing a doctoral internship at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), in Spain.
Expected to return to Brazil in May 2023, Renato highlights the contribution of distance learning to his achievements: “the EaD/UFRN Chemistry course gave me pedagogical support and the necessary infrastructure to enter the initial teacher training, through the monitoring scholarship in the Chemistry laboratory of the Currais Novos/RN pole and, also, in research, through the completion of the sandwich undergraduate course at the University of Coimbra, in Portugal”. Due to his accumulated expertise, he became a reviewer of articles published in the international journal Scientific Reports, from the Nature group.
Silvana Zucolotto, a professor at UFRN’s Pharmacy Department, has been accompanying Renato for a few years and is currently coordinating the research developed by the doctoral student. According to her: “since the selection for the master’s degree, he stood out, he made a great effort to understand the drugs part, and today, I say that he is a chemist that understands a lot about the pharmaceutical area, he is independent, he has ideas and scientific maturity”.
In our next report we will tell the story of two former Chemistry students from the Nova Cruz/RN campus who were part of the first class of the course and who met again to develop applied research.
Bruno Cássio – Communication Advisor of SEDIS/UFRN.
The Permanent Center for Contests (Comperve/UFRN) published two new with vacancies for distance learning undergraduate courses at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Grande do Norte (UFRN). There are more than 260 vacancies available, with 166 for undergraduate courses, in the areas of Physics Physics, Geography, Mathematics and Chemistry, and 102 vacancies for the undergraduate bachelor’s degree in Public Administration. The opportunities are for the centers in Caicó, Caraúbas, Currais Novos, Guamaré, Lajes, Luís Gomes, Jundiaí (Macaíba), Macau Marcelino Vieira, Nova Cruz, Parnamirim, and São Gonçalo do Amarante.
In the case of distance learning undergraduate courses, those interested in participating in the the selection process must have a certificate of completion of high school. A
classification of candidates for each course will be based on the scores obtained obtained on the National High School Exam (ENEM), in one of the editions held
in the years 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 or 2022. For the bachelor’s degree in Public Administration, the vacancies are intended for public officials of the Public Administration Public Administration at the federal, state, and municipal levels of the Administrative and Political types.
The numbers of available places in the Edital 01/2023 and Edital 02/2023 have been rectified and are published on the Comperve/UFRN page on the Internet. To check
the digital documents, you must access the tab “Higher Distance Education” and click on the “New” section. In the annexes to the announcements, you will find detailed information
information about the allocation of vacancies per course and the centers. In addition, applicants have at their disposal the the “Candidate’s Agenda” to follow the step-by-step schedule of the selection of the selection processes.
The registrations can be made from this Thursday (19), until the day 6 February 6, 2023. The registration fee is R$ 30.00 (thirty reais). Click here and learn more.
Bruno Cássio – Communication Advisor of SEDIS/UFRN
