Universidade Estadual de Campinas

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State University of Campinas


Established:	October 5, 1966
Type:	Public university
Rector:	José Tadeu Jorge
Staff:	9,940
Undergraduates:	16,313
Postgraduates:	15,393
Location:	Campinas, SP, BR
Campus:	Urban
Website:	www.unicamp.br

Main entrance of the Campinas campus. Photo: Renato M.E. Sabbatini

Row of yellow tabebuia trees in one of Barão Geraldo's avenues

Universidade Estadual de Campinas (State University of Campinas), short Unicamp, is one of the public universities of the State of São Paulo, Brazil. Its main campus is located in the Barão Geraldo district, 6 miles (10km) away from Campinas downtown, with additional campi in Limeira and Piracicaba.

Created in 1962 and physically installed in 1966, Unicamp's original goal was to promote science education in the industrial pole of São Paulo's interior region. As of 2006, the university had about 16,000 undergraduate and 15,000 graduate students, as well as 1,800 faculties.

Unicamp, which is responsible for around 15% of all Brazilian research^{[citation needed]}, has courses, colleges and institutes of Medicine, Nursing, Speech therapy, Pharmacy, Dentistry, Biology, Physical Education, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics (Pure, Applied and Computational), Statistics, Computer Sciences, Engineering (Control and Automation, Chemical, Food, Electrical, Computer, Mechanical, Agricultural and Civil), Architecture, Geography, Geology, Economics, Arts, Music, Social Communication, Literature, Linguistics, Philosophy, History and Social Sciences. It also runs two professional vocational high schools, COTUCA (in Campinas) and COTIL (in Limeira).

Unicamp's teaching hospital, Hospital de Clínicas, is the largest public hospital in the region. Unicamp also has a semi-independent structure of more than 20 interdisciplinary centers, labs and groups.

According to the Times Higher Education 2007 World University Rankings, Unicamp is the 177th best university in the world, and the 2nd best in Latin America (after the University of São Paulo in 176th place).

1 Interdisciplinary Activities
2 Sports
3 Libraries
4 Admission
5 Academic career
6 Administration
- 6.1 List of Unicamp Rectors
7 Unicamp Honoris Causa Doctors
8 See also
9 External links

[edit] Interdisciplinary Activities

UNICAMP became extremely well-known and respected in the higher education and research community for its pioneering work regarding policies for interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary work. Beginning 1982, the University established a system of interdisciplinary groups, nuclei and centers.

[edit] Sports

Sports arena and convention center

The University devotes a fair area of its central campus to sports activities. There are courts for basketball, volleyball, a regulation soccer field, a complete athletics field with running tracks, a competition swimming pool, a huge covered gymnasium for indoor spectator sports, which houses also a convention center. Spaces for many other classes of sports and physical activities are also contemplated, including for indoor climbing, rugby union, martial arts, baseball and softball, aerobic exercise, and so on.

[edit] Libraries

Central Library building

The SBU ("Sistema de Bibliotecas da UNICAMP" or UNICAMP Libraries Systems) comprise a Central Library and more than 20 thematic libraries located in its colleges and institutes. It is considered one of the best organized and most complete of university libraries in Latin America. A number of historical libraries and historical and media archives, such as the Arquivo Edgard Leuenroth, have also been established. The library system is fully automated and its collections may be freely accessed and searched on the Internet.

[edit] Admission

The admission for undergraduate courses is based on a annual open concourse called vestibular. The only request to be filled is to have a complete high school course. Vestibular comprises two stages: the first one is usually accomplished in November, with a writing and a 12-question discursive test on Geography, Mathematics, Physics, History, Biology and Chemistry. Those who get the minimum scores accomplish the second stage in January, taking tests with 12 questions of each subject, two subjects a day: Portuguese (including Brazilian and Portuguese Literature) and Biology; Chemistry and History; Physics and Geography; Mathematics and English. Until 2005, the candidate had option to take a French test instead of English, but it is no longer an option. Classes usually start in March.

For graduate programs, the university applies tests, interviews and analysis of curricula. Some graduate programs also requires a specific exam on the area (such like ANPEC (in Portuguese), for Economics, and PosComp (in Portuguese), for Computing).

[edit] Academic career

Teaching Assistant (Auxiliar de Ensino) - MS-2 (must have a Master's degree and be enrolled in a doctoral program)
Professor Doutor - MS-3 (must have a doctoral or equivalent degree)
Professor Associado - MS-5 (must have a Livre Docente title; equivalent to the German Habilitation)
Professor Titular - MS-6 (top rank, only MS-6 professors are allowed to hold positions such as Dean of a Faculty/School or Rector of the University)

[edit] Administration

As most Brazilian universities, Unicamp's administration is centralized on the figure of a rector. Unicamp rectors have a mandate of 4 years, and are chosen by the state governor from a list of 3 candidates. The candidate list is formed by the 3 most voted by the university community (staff, faculty and students), and the governor has always chosen the most voted candidate as rector. Zeferino Vaz, who drove the installation and establishment of the university, was the first rector and held the position for 12 years.

[edit] List of Unicamp Rectors

Zeferino Vaz (1966-1978)
Plínio Alves de Moraes (1978-1982)
José Aristodemo Pinotti (1982-1986)
Paulo Renato Costa Souza (1986-1990)
Carlos Vogt (1990-1994)
José Martins Filho (1994-1998)
Hermano Tavares (1998-2002)
Carlos Henrique Brito Cruz (2002-2005)
José Tadeu Jorge (2005-present)

Carlos Henrique Brito Cruz left the office early in 2005 to become the scientific director of the research funding agency FAPESP, and elections were anticipated to choose the new rector.

[edit] Unicamp Honoris Causa Doctors

As of August, 2005 the University Council had granted 24 honoris causa doctorate in recognition of valuable contribution made to society by people through their scientific or humanitarian work. This is the full list of the granted people (the date in parentheses designates when the title was delivered).