Universidade Federal do Ceará (UFC)

Founded in December of 1954, and established on June 25 of the following year, the Federal University of Ceará has become a leader in scientific research and outreach programs in the state of Ceará. Its faculty consists of 1,800 professors - 1,100 of them are PhD professors and 450 of them are MSc professors. Also, the staff is made up of 3,400 technical and administrative employees, which includes the Hospital Facilities staff.The Universidade Federal do Ceará (UFC) is recognized as one of the best federal public institutions of higher education in Brazil. Today, the UFC stands as an important scientific and cultural patrimony of the people from Ceará, helping to promote social and economic development in Brazil. Its programs are distributed among four centers (Science, Agricultural Sciences, Human Sciences, and Technology), five colleges (Law; Education; Economics, Administration, Actuarial Sciences, and Accounting; Pharmacy, Dentistry, and Nursing; and Medicine), and four Institutes (Sea Sciences and Culture and Arts, UFC Virtual, Physical Education and Sports).Besides qualifying students for professional careers, UFC faces the even greater challenge of contributing to the production and exchange of knowledge that meets the needs of today’s society. In order to meet this challenge, UFC offers 101 undergraduate programs to nearly 30,000 students. At UFC, the almost 4,000 students enrolled in graduate programs aim at expanding their undergraduate expertise. These students are distributed among 100 specialization programs, 60 master’s programs and 32 PhD programs. In the state of Ceará, UFC has taken the leading position in scientific production, thanks to the adoption of research-funded policies. Besides stimulating the development of about 180 research groups in several different areas of knowledge, the University grants thousands of research scholarships. The UFC has a large experience in international cooperation and exchange programs with foreign universities and other types of foreign institutions. Currently it keeps 99 agreements with universities from 17 different countries. Such an intense work has allowed faculty members to obtain outstanding advanced educational training and has provided means to exchange scientific and technologic information as well. Currently, the cooperation agreements cover many different knowledge areas, allowing contact among research groups, providing means to improve graduate programs and promoting the exchange of undergraduate and graduate students as well as faculty members.