Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul

The Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul is among the largest federal universities of Brazil, where public universities are usually among the most qualified institutions. It is almost completely located in Porto Alegre, with four campi (Campus do Centro, Campus Saúde, Campus Olímpico e Campus do Vale), some isolated buildings (e.g. the Business School and Institute of Arts buildings) and some isolated units in other cities.

History

The University (mostly known by its initials UFRGS) originated from Escola de Farmácia e Química (Pharmacy and Chemistry School) in 1895, which expanded with the creation of Escola de Engenharia (Engineering School). This was the flourishing of Higher education in Rio Grande do Sul, and still in the end of the 19th century, there were founded the Medicine and Law schools, the latter being the first humanities tertiary education school in the state.

The above-mentioned institutions were scattered about Porto Alegre until 1934, when Universidade de Porto Alegre (Porto Alegre University) was founded, initially composed by the following:

• Engineering School, with its Astronomy, Electrotechnique and Industrial Chemistry institutes;
• Medical College, with its Dentistry and Pharmacy institutes;
• Law College, with Commerce School;
• Agricultural Science and Veterinary Medicine Colleges;
• Philosophy, Science and Linguistics Colleges; and
• Institute of Fine Arts.

The third transformation was held in 1947, when it became Universidade do Rio Grande do Sul (University of Rio Grande do Sul) --- URGS ---, merging with the Law and Dentistry Colleges from Pelotas and Pharmacy College from Santa Maria. These units, however, have been set apart from URGS, upon foundation of Pelotas University and Santa Maria University, respectively.

By December 1950, the University's control was passed to the Federal Government, thus the current name including the word Federal.

UFRGS is among Brazil's best universities, and has one of the greatest numbers of scientific publications.

External Links

Offical Website (in Portuguese) [1]