The University of São Paulo (USP) is a public university, funded by the State of São Paulo and created in 1934. It stems from the combination of six pre-existing local institutions of higher education (the schools of Law, Medicine, of Pharmacy and Odontology, of Engineering and of Agriculture) around an alma mater named Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Languages. It is the first brazilian univesity with scientific areas ranging from the biological to human sciences as well as to so-called exact sciences.
USP has its campi in eight different cities; 42 units among institutes, colleges and schools; 70 libraries. It offers 95 undergraduate courses in all areas of knowledge, which gathered in 2021 almost 60 thousand students, and 269 graduate programs for over 28 thousand students in the last year. All courses at the USP are provided to the student free of charge. Therefore, there is no enrollment fee or monthly fee charged to any student, whether Brazilian or not.
The University of São Paulo had a prominent performance in international university rankings in 2021:
– 10th more sustainable university in the world and first in Latin America (UI GreenMetric World University Ranking)
– 90th with best employability (Global Employability University Ranking and Survey)
– among the one hundred universities of best reputation (THE World Reputation Ranking), 84th in the clinical and health subject (THE Ranking by Subject) and 13th position among institutions from emerging economies (THE Emerging Economies Universities Ranking)
– best in Latin America, 115th in the world and among the 100 best in 21 areas of knowledge (Best Global Universities 2022)
– second best in Latin America (QS University Rankings for Latin America) and among the 50 best in 13 specific areas by (QS World University Rankings by Subjects)
– 9th position in scientific impact (CWTS Leiden Ranking)
– best university in Latin America addressing the scientific performance of individual researchers (AD Scientific Index 2021)
– 33rd biggest world producer of scientifical knowledge about covid-19 pandemic (Clarivate Analytics)
As the university is based on three main objectives – teaching, research and extension – besides the academic activities USP offers various options for its students and also for the community such as artistic presentations, health support, sports activities, museums and open courses. There are several cultural centers, in different locations, that promote activities with a focus on the performing arts, cinema, music, plastic arts, cultural and patrimonial preservation, literature, and scientific diffusion. Many programs are developed to strengthen a direct relationship between the internal and external community of USP with the following underlying themes: inclusion, accessibility, diversity, entrepreneurship, solidarity economy, career choice, admission to USP, talent spotting, senior citizens, relationship with the community and with minors in vulnerable situations, teacher training, and the opening and presentation of USP’s campi to the public.
More information about the university can be found, in english, in the links below: