Federal University of Minas Gerais
The Federal University of Minas Gerais is a federal research university located in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Its main and biggest campus is located in the city of Belo Horizonte. It is one of Brazil's five largest and highest-ranked universities.
UFMG offers 79 undergraduate education programs—including bachelor's degrees, licenciate degrees, or professional degree titles—as well as 90 postgraduate education programs, awarding 30 postbaccalaureate specialization degrees, 92 master's degrees, and 72 doctoral degrees; the school's hospital facilities also have 41 medical residency programs. UFMG also has campi at Tiradentes and Montes Claros, though most courses are taught at the main campus in the Pampulha district of Belo Horizonte.
UFMG receives one of the highest amounts of federal funds and resources among all federal universities in Brazil. According to the 2021 Times Higher Education ranking, it is the third best university in Brazil and the fifth best in Latin America. Based on results of the "Student's National Performance Exam", UFMG's undergraduate degrees are among the best in Brazil, while national ranking systems usually place UFMG as one of the best in the country.
History
The origins of the university go back to the 19th century, when it first appeared in the Republic as a continuation of a process that began during the Empire, with the opening of the first institutions of higher education.In 1898, the Ouro Preto Faculty of Law was transferred to Belo Horizonte, which at the time was set to be the new state capital.
A few new unconnected faculties would be founded later: in 1907, the Free School of Dentistry; in 1911, the Faculty of Medicine, the School of Engineering, and a course in pharmacy attached to the Free School of Dentistry.
In 1927, these four schools merged to found University of Minas Gerais, a private institution subsidized by the state government. This is the mark of the foundation of the university.
The UMG remained funded by Minas Gerais government until 1949, when funding had been delegated to the Brazilian Government, though, the name UFMG was not adopted until 1965.
In the 1940s, a large area in the Pampulha region became the site for the construction of University City. The first structures erected were the Institute of Mechanics and the Main Building. The effective occupation of the campus by the university community started only in the 1960s, when the construction of the buildings that today house most of the academic units was started.
At the time of federalization, the schools of architecture, philosophy and economics were already integrated in the university. As its expansion carried on, the school of nursing, veterinary science, information science, music and physical education were founded.
In 1968, a university reform altered profoundly the structure of UFMG. The College of Philosophy spawned multiple institutions: the College of Philosophy and Human Sciences, the Institute of Biological Sciences, the Institute of Exact Sciences, the Institute of Geosciences and the Colleges of Literature and Education.
Additional courses have been established, among them agronomy, archival science, theater, museology, control engineering, computational mathematics, and speech therapy/audiology.
In 2025 UFMG has 32 areas of knowledge including the global ranking QS 2025.
Population
The UFMG has a population of roughly 72 thousand people among 34,482 undergraduate students, 2,247 postbaccalaureate specialization students, 10,556 master's and doctoral students, 3,202 professors, and 4,246 administrative employees. It is research-oriented, even at the undergraduate level, whose students are encouraged to take part in research development through the Scientific Initiation program. Out of the number of professors, 761 are CNPq award-recipients due to outstanding research productivity. It encompasses 860 research groups, 1051 patent deposits in Brazil and abroad, and has the highest score at the Ministry of Education's undergraduate assessment.Admissions
The undergraduate students are admitted through the national annual exams called Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio. Competition to get into undergraduate programs involved 111,718 candidates to 6740 vacancy openings.Location
The UFMG main campus is located at the Pampulha region of the city of Belo Horizonte. The total area of this land-campus equals 8,769,690 square meters, with a built area reaching 639,777 square meters. Aside from the main campus in Pampulha, in the same city there are the UFMG Health Sciences campus at Alfredo Balena Avenue in the city's hospitals district, the UFMG School of Architecture and Design campus located at the Savassi district, and the Faculty of Law and State Sciences campus at the city center.Outside of Belo Horizonte, UFMG has the Agronomic Sciences Campus in the city of Montes Claros, and a cultural campus in the city of Tiradentes. The UFMG has also several other facilities such as Casa da Glória in Diamantina. Within the Pampulha Campus there is the CDTN, a Federal Institute for Nuclear Sciences Research. The campus avails of 38 built facilities, hundreds of scientific research laboratories and a 250 kW TRIGA nuclear reactor from General Atomics. There is also an extensive area of secondary forest known as the Estação Ecológica, where some university scientists – mainly ecologists and zoologists – carry out research; this is the largest green space within the city boundaries, and is home to endemic insect species.