Recanto Maestro

Without a doubt, the Antonio Meneghetti Faculty opens up new areas, but it also involves important responsibilities. It is both a public and a private challenge to keep alive the flame of a science that transmits a scientific breakthrough to the globalised world. State institutions are no longer capable of responding to the many growing educational demands in the economic and management fields; this void must be filled by competent private initiatives favouring social growth through education. The foundation of a Faculty in Brazil is the first step towards creating an institute of Higher Learning. Contrary to what occurs in Europe, these may be independent institutions and do not necessarily have to be a part of a university structure. The Faculties are organizations where one may obtain a degree that is recognized by the country of Brazil. An institution or an organization must necessarily support it in order for the Faculty to be founded (the so-called mantenedora). They both must be granted authorization by the MEC Ministry of Education (a minimum of two years are needed to obtain it). One can begin with a couple of courses and then slowly add others, always with the MEC’s approval. The objective of these institutions is to train professionals at a higher level. The process of accrediting FOIL as a mantenedora of both the Faculty and the management course by the Brazilian Ministry of Education began in March 2006. Following approval of the Development, Project and Regulation Plans and the submission of a series of applications, we received a visit on site of the Verification Commission. The Commission gave full marks to all the standards that needed to be fulfilled by law to establish the Faculty. In November 2007 the National Board of Education gave its favourable opinion towards accreditation; in December of the same year, the Minister of Education, Hon. Fernando Haddad, signed the Portaria No. 1.170 and had it published within the Official Brazil Agenda, which authorizes Faculty operations along with management courses, with its premises in the Distrito Recanto Maestro. The Faculty was initially called FOIL Management. However, after the report was presented – with a description of the project, the course, FOIL and the man whose thinking was at the foundation of this project – , the Ministry suggested calling it the Antonio Meneghetti Faculty, with its first course in Management. The FOIL methodology, explained to the Ministry’s representatives, led to the conclusion that an unprecedented inter-disciplinarity is being introduced to supplement management courses already existing today in Brazil. The pedagogical project of the course was conceived in conformity with national directives for obtaining a degree in Bacharel in Administracione providing for 3.108 hours of lectures, including modules with FOIL methodology. The programme was so appreciated by the Verification Commission that it requested a copy to be used as a standard for the evaluation of other management courses. The Ministry paid the utmost attention to the criteria for teaching staff selection, a process that turned out to be the most time-consuming. A Major in Ontopsychology at the Saint Petersburg State University was inserted as an additional requisite for teaching FOIL disciplines. At the end of the course, the graduates must possess skills and competitiveness in all the aspects of business management, from production to distribution, with a priority towards supply and demand insight. They must also have acquired the capacity to relate to both the national and the international markets and must be able to face the ongoing innovation and renovation in the field of employment. They must finally have experience in bank and tax management and an in-depth knowledge of law. They must be able to grasp business intuition through the FOIL methodology and intelligently carry on their own economic activities, which must provide solutions to concrete problems within both the business and social sectors. The highest authority of the Faculty is FOIL’s President, Academician Professor Antonio Meneghetti. Then comes the Scientific Advisory Board: a body with policy and decision-making powers tasked with steering, coordinating and supervising the Faculty’s scientific teaching and research activities. The Antonio Meneghetti Faculty, FOIL – the company supporting it –, the Recanto Maestro structure in which it has its headquarters and the Ontopsychology methodology applied to economics as it is taught there have been built, founded and created by one mind. This institution totally impersonates the operational, methodological, scientific, creative and economic aspect of Professor Meneghetti; presently there does not exist another organization in the world that has all these characteristics gathered as one and I hope that this is just the first of many more to come. It has been an honour for me to have been given the assignment to follow all the accreditation process of the Faculty with the Ministry. Taking responsibility for the coordination of this project has been absolutely great. Collaborating on a project created by Prof. Meneghetti means learning to grow with a responsible leading role. And it has been wonderful to perceive the concerted actions of all those who are a part of it. The best part of the project was the joint effort made by the members of the group – each joining on the basis of an individual decision – to work closely for the attainment of a common goal. Following the enrolment of the freshman students, the first academic semester at the Antonio Meneghetti Faculty began on 25 February 2008… in the heart of Rio Grande do Sul, in Recanto Maestro, Brazil.