| Federal University of Santa Maria | |
|---|---|
| Universidade Federal de Santa Maria | |
| Motto | Sedes Sapientiæ "Seat of Wisdom" |
| Established | 1960-12-14 |
| Type | public |
| Endowment | R$ 365 mi (2005) |
| Rector | Felipe Martins Müller |
| Academic staff | 1,215 |
| Admin. staff | 2,616 |
| Students | 17,251 (2008) |
| Undergraduates | 12,803 |
| Postgraduates | 2,121 |
| Location | Santa Maria, RS, Brazil |
| Campus | Santa Maria, RS Frederico Westphalen, RS Palmeira das Missões, RS Silveira Martins, RS |
| Website | http://www.ufsm.br |
The Federal University of Santa Maria (in Portuguese, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria; UFSM) is a Brazilian public university located in Santa Maria, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, funded by the federal government of Brazil. It was founded on December 14, 1960, by Professor José Mariano da Rocha Filho.
Its presence in the municipality of Santa Maria is one of the main reasons why the city is sometimes called "university city" or "culture city". Santa Maria is located in western Rio Grande do Sul, approximately 290 km far from the capital city of the state, Porto Alegre. Set in the heart of the pampas of Brazil, the city thrives with gaúcho culture.
UFSM is a public, free university, and students do not have to pay any tuition fees. It is the oldest federal university not located in a Brazilian state capital city, and the largest in number of undergraduate courses offered in Rio Grande do Sul state.[1]
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Like most other Brazilian higher education institutions, the admission for undergraduate courses in UFSM is mainly based on an annual open concourse called vestibular. The only request to be filled in order to apply for it is to have a complete high school course. UFSM's vestibular comprises a multiple-choice exam and a written essay and lasts for 2 mornings and 1 afternoon.[2] Currently, the multiple-choice exam contains 10 questions of each of the following subjects: Portuguese Language, Brazilian Literature, Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics, Geography, History, Biology, Philosophy and Foreign Language (the applicant may choose one among English, Spanish, French, German and Italian).[2] The written essay is usually an argumentative text about a specific theme.
UFSM offers also an innovative serial admission program, called PEIES (or Programa de Ingresso ao Ensino Superior), which consists of a multiple-choice exam applied at the end of each of the three years of Brazilian high school, plus a written essay only in the third year. UFSM is the pioneer university in Brazil to adopt such serial admission program, through which 20% of all the undergraduate students are admitted.
UFSM's vestibular and PEIES are both prepared and administered by Coperves (Permanent Commission for Vestibular). In 2011, the most competitive course was Medicine, with over 96 candidates per opening.
UFSM has four campuses: the main one in Santa Maria; one campus in the municipality of Silveira Martins, near Santa Maria; and two smaller ones in northern Rio Grande do Sul, in the municipalities of Frederico Westphalen and Palmeira das Missões. In Santa Maria, however, the courses of Law, Business, Accounting, Psychology, Economics, International Relations, and Dentistry are still offered off-campus, in the city centre.
The university is divided into 9 academic centers, which administer and organize the undergraduate and postgraduate courses offered.
UFSM also offers 11 distance education courses and 66 graduate courses in several areas of knowledge.
The Federal University of Santa Maria also comprises three technical and secondary education institutions:
They are administered by UFSM's Coordenadoria de Ensino Médio e Tecnológico — Coordination of Secondary and Technical Education. The schools offer the plain high school syllabus, plus optional vocational education.
UFSM is a major center for studies of paleontology, since the city of Santa Maria sits on a huge deposit of fossils. It is an important institution of Paleorrota.
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