Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul

The Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Portuguese: Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, UFRGS) is a Brazilian public federal research university based in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul. UFRGS is among the largest and highest-rated universities in Brazil, having one of the largest number of scientific publications. From 2012 to 2019, the university was elected as the best federal university of Brazil. UFRGS has over 31,000 undergraduate students, over 12,000 graduate students, and more than 2,600 faculty members. As a Brazilian public federal institution, students do not pay tuition fees to enroll in courses offered by the university.
Among the main alumni affiliated with UFRGS, there are three former presidents of Brazil, former state governors, former members of the Supreme Federal Court, members of the Brazilian Academy of Letters and important Brazilian actors, musicians and journalists.
The university originated from the Escola de Farmácia e Química (School of Pharmacy and Chemistry) in 1895. It was expanded in 1896, when the Engineering College was created. This was the beginning of higher education in Rio Grande do Sul. In the end of the 19th century, the Medicine and Law schools were founded, the latter being the first school of humanities tertiary education in the state.
In November 1934, the Universidade de Porto Alegre (University of Porto Alegre) was founded, initially composed of the following units:
The third transformation took place in 1947, when it became the Universidade do Rio Grande do Sul (University of Rio Grande do Sul), URGS, incorporating the Law and Dentistry Colleges from Pelotas and with the Pharmacy College from Santa Maria. These units, however, separated from URGS when the Federal University of Pelotas and the Federal University of Santa Maria were founded.
In December 1950, control of the university passed to the Federal Government. After that, the name of the institution became Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul). The institute also has a profound political history. Between 1964 and 1969, during the worst years of the military dictatorship, 33 professors were eliminated, as well as a good number of students. Many high-ranking officials, including three presidents - Getúlio Vargas, João Goulart and Dilma Rousseff - as well as the majority of the history, philosophy and social sciences teachers in smaller universities throughout the state were educated in the institution. The climate of intellectual debate and analysis of public issues has also been important in training students (often with scholarships and/or student apprenticeships) to work for non-governmental and governmental organisations which contribute to the critical reflection and planning of development programs.
UFRGS is almost completely located in Porto Alegre, with four campuses: Campus Centro (Downtown Campus), Campus Saúde (Health Sciences Campus), Campus Olímpico (Olympic Campus, housing the School of Physical Education, Physiotherapy and Dance) and Campus do Vale (Vale Campus), a few off-campus buildings (including the Business School and the Institute of Arts) and units in other cities, such as the Agriculture Experimental Station and the Campus Litoral Norte (a new campus in the state's northeastern coastal city of Tramandaí).
Offering graduate and undergraduate courses, UFRGS is the largest university of Rio Grande do Sul. Its more than 300 buildings accommodate 29 faculties, schools and institutes, which are divided into 94 departments.
The university spreads through 2,185 ha, and it has 402,000 m of constructed area. It is divided into four campuses and minor units (see above).
The undergraduate program's students make up for a population of about 31 thousand students, while the graduate program has 12 thousand students. The elementary, high-school and technical school sum up to 1,300 students.
The university's infrastructure comprises more than 500 laboratories, 33 libraries, 37 lecture halls, the Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre (the university's clinical research hospital), UFRGS Press, UFRGS Museum, Botanical Garden, Broadcasting Center, Observatory, 3 buildings for Campus Accommodation, 5 refectories, 2 summer camps and several other centers and facilities.
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SECOM is an executive office of UFRGS directly connected to the Central Administration's cabinet – as well as to other sectors and the Provosts' Offices. SECOM defines the communication policies and strategies employed by UFRGS, facilitating services inside the university through the creation of informative and institutional materials. Its goal is to promote new activities and establish initiatives which recognize and publicize the institution's potential. Some of its sections are the university newspaper, TV channel and radio station.
UFRGS university hospital is located in the centre of Porto Alegre.
The objective of the Undergraduate Research Internship Program is to integrated students from undergraduate courses into research activities, technological development and, innovation. Besides contributing for students’ academic and professional growth, the program also offers the opportunity to take part in the community of the university researchers fostering dialogue between undergraduate and graduate programs.
The research promotion program has as goal to support the continuity of research projects, the organization of events and the qualification of technical and administrative personnel, besides stimulating the national and international exposure of works made in research by professors, technical and administrative personnel, and students.
This program has the compromise of stimulating university developed projects which are turned to popularization and spreading of science and technology in a variety of social groups and in school environment, through participation of UFRGS undergraduate students, in activities which enable the permanent development of human capital in these areas.
The Journal Editing Supporting Program implements ways of support and stimulus for journal editing at UFRGS. Its objective is to grant visibility to scientific periodicals of the institution.
Students are accepted through the vestibular, which is an open examination where the top-placed candidates are offered a placement at the university. Since UFRGS is free of charge, the Vestibular is usually a very hard examination since there are many candidates for few open placements. Examinations take place in January and classes begin in March.
The Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, as well as the other Brazilian federal universities, adopted the National High School Examination (ENEM) in 2010 as a standard of admission. The applicants’ participation in ENEM is optative. Initially, their performances in the examination were analyzed together with their performances in the university entrance exam, comprehending 10% of the final grade. However, as of 2019, UFRGS decided to withdraw the sum of 10% in the final score, having only vacancies through the National High School Exam (30%) and/or through the Vestibular (70%).
According to the ranking sponsored by the Ministry of Education (MEC, Ministério da Educação), UFRGS is Brazil's best university (in a ranking which doesn't include Universidade de São Paulo—see rankings of universities in Brazil for details). According to the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities in 2012, UFRGS was placed 71st worldwide.
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