Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul

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The Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Portuguese Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, UFRGS abbreviated) is among the largest federal universities of Brazil, where public universities are often among the most qualified institutions. It is almost completely located in Porto Alegre, with four campuses (Campus do Centro, Campus Saúde, Campus Olímpico and Campus do Vale), some isolated buildings (e.g. the Business School and Institute of Arts) and some isolated units in other cities. UFRGS is among the best Brazilian universities, and has one of the greatest numbers of scientific publications.

History

The university originated from Escola de Farmácia e Química (Pharmacy and Chemistry School) in 1895, which expanded with the creation of Escola de Engenharia (College of Engineering) in 1896. 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, Electronics and Industrial Chemistry institutes;
• Medical College, with its Dentistry and Pharmacy institutes;
• Law College, with Commerce School;
• Communication College (called FABICO), which is made by the Journalism, Publicity and Public Relations courses;
• 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 the federal universities of Pelotas and Santa Maria, respectively.

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

Notes and references

External links

• Official Website (in Portuguese)

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Last updated on Friday July 04, 2008 at 20:46:32 PDT (GMT -0700)
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