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Entrance to the university campus

The Federal University of São Carlos (Portuguese: Universidade Federal de São Carlos, UFSCar) is a public research university located in São Carlos, state of São Paulo, Brazil.

Background

UFSCar has an enrollment of approximately 16,000 students and 1,000 professors and researchers. Its researchers are Brazil's the fourth most productive in terms of articles published in indexed international journals of science. It is highlighted by the high qualifications of its teaching staff: 99.9% are PhDs or Masters.

UFSCar offers 57 undergraduate degrees and 57 graduate degrees. According to the last CAPES evaluation of the Brazilian Graduate System, more than half of all of UFSCar's Graduate Programs were considered nationally or internationally excellent. Among those programs are special education, physiotherapy, psychology and sociology.

The University has three campuses. The main campus, in São Carlos, is located 234 kilometers (145 mi) from the capital, and occupies 645 hectares (1,590 acres). Approximately 94 kilometers (58 mi) from São Carlos is the 230 hectares (570 acres) Araras campus, containing the agricultural engineer centre, with research in the Biotechnology area. In 2005, the Sorocaba campus opened and offers 14 undergrad 5 graduate courses. In November, 2010, the University Council approved the creation of the rural campus Lagoa do Sino in a 643 hectares (1,590 acres) farm donated by writer Raduan Nassar. It will be a campus focused on courses about food security, family agriculture, and sustainable development.

The university hosts more than 321 laboratories, a community library, 2 theaters, 3 amphitheaters, 3 auditoriums, a sports gym, a sport park with 8 courts and 2 pools, 2 university restaurants, 5 snack bars and 129 classrooms.

The 33 academic departments are divided in four centers: Biological Sciences and Health Center (Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde, CCBS), Exact Sciences and Technology Center (Centro de Ciências Exatas e de Tecnologia, CCET), Education and Humans Sciences Center (Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas, CECH) and Agrarian Sciences Center (Centro de Ciências Agrárias, CCA).

History

Once the presidential decree's signature created the university on December 1, 1968, a commission formed to coordinate the project. UFSCar was the first Federal University in the interior of São Paulo state. In March 1970, it received its first 96 students for the courses of science and materials engineering.^[2]

Thancham's farm, localized on the border of Washington Luís highway, was chosen as the initial site. Farm buildings were adapted to provide administration, classrooms, and laboratories. The university started with a strong emphasis on natural sciences. This profile changed during the 1990s, when UFSCar created more courses, departments, and added graduate programs in the humanities.

In 2008, UFSCar adopted the federal plan to restructure and expand the public universities. Since then, it has increased the number of campuses, undergraduate and graduate courses, staff. In 2012, the university is expected to reach double its 2007 size, with enrollment reaching around 17,000 students.

Centers and Careers

The first three academic centers were created in the 1970s. The Center for Science and Technology (CCET, in Portuguese) and the Center for Life Sciences and Health (CCBS, in Portuguese), the Education Centre and Human Sciences (CECH, in Portuguese) along with the undergraduate Biological Sciences degree were created in 1972. The first health program, undergraduate Nursing, deployed in 1977. In 1994 an undergraduate program in Physical Education began.

By the end of the 80s, the humanities professors were linked mainly to the Department of Scientific and Philosophical Foundations of Education. The university also hosted the Departments of Social Sciences, Education, Philosophy, Educational Methodology and Psychology.

The Social Sciences undergraduate course began in 1991; Psychology and Library and Information Science opened in 1994; Literature and Image and Sound came in 1996, and Bachelor of Music with specialization in Music Education started in 2004.

The second campus of the University was created in January 1991, when UFSCar São Paulo incorporated units of the defunct National Program Improvement of Sugar Cane (Planalsucar), an agency affiliated with the Institute Sugar and Alcohol (IAA) in Araras. In 1993 existing courses in Agricultural Engineering became part of the Center for Agricultural Sciences (CCA, in Portuguese). The Araras campus also has units in the cities of Valparaíso and Anhembi.

Taking part in ENEM, the national test for graduating high school students, the university offers 2,577 undergraduate positions each year. UFSCar also opens 900 positions each year in its distance learning courses (via Internet).

Brazilian Cerrado (savannah)

Located inside campus, there is an area of about 672 hectares (1.660 acres; 6,72 Km2) of Cerrado, of which almost 30% are of preserved vegetation. The area, which had previously belonged to the Tranchan farm, was acquired by the city of São Carlos in 1968.

About 20% of the total area corresponds to diverse natural vegetation, among which the cerrado form predominates. This area of vegetation is used for teaching and research, being the largest preservation area of the university.

Due to human interference, it cannot be said to be the original cerrado (due to location). There is, however, a landscape rich in species. The physiognomic aspects such as tortuosity of the stems, the development of thick bark, hard leaves such as leather, vegetation stature, sandy and deep soil, are present aspects that can be glimpsed in the various existing tracks. These trails correspond to more than 1600 meters, and along the way it is possible to observe, besides those already mentioned, marsh vegetation and gallery forest (due to the presence of a watercourse)

Because of agriculture and cattle ranching today there is only 1% of cerrado vegetation that existed in the state of São Paulo, transforming preservation places like this in animal refuges.

Fauna

In the preservation area of UFSCar we can find armadillos, deer, capybaras and other rodents, marmosets, and a great diversity of birds (more than 260 registered species) that help to spread seeds. There are also records of the presence of tatuis, anteater, and brown jaguars.

To record the activity of these animals are implanted cameras to capture the movement of animals that have their nocturnal activities.

More than 30 new species of aquatic insects have been discovered in this area, these insects are used as indicators of environmental changes, mainly water pollution. The cerrado of UFSCar is a reference in preservation and proof of this is the presence of these insects.

Flora

The presence of riparian forest or riparian woodland in this area of preservation is very small but it maintains its characteristics.

It is fairly preserved, but human influence can be observed through the cutting of some trees and the damming of water and the burning of parts of its edges. By being inside this preservation area, it tends to remain more conserved.

There are some plants and fruits that are linked to the presence of some species of animals, such as the lobeira we can find in this area of preservation, this plant has a direct relationship with the wolf-manu that takes much of its diet of fruit- wolf produced by the same that has an antiparasitary activity in Lobo-guará and we can say that where we find this type of plant is a place with great potential to find this species.

Visitation

On Tuesdays and Thursdays the CDCC - Center of Scientific and Cultural Disclosure - and its collaborators promete monitored visits (all free). Anyone interested in can contact them through the Website

Day of the Cerrado

The Cerrado Day is celebrated on September 11, a date that was instituted in 2003 by a presidential decree. This is a day to remember its importance as one of the richest biomes in diversity.

See also

• Universities and Higher Education in Brazil

References

External links

• 
  Federal University of São Carlos official website


• A presentation of UFSCar (Vídeo Institucional da UFSCar):

Coordinates: 21°58′43″S 47°52′52″W / 21.97861°S 47.88111°W / -21.97861; -47.88111