Unicamp accounts for 8% of academic research in Brazil, 12% of national postgraduate studies and maintains leadership among Brazilian universities with regard to patents and the number of articles per capita published annually in journals indexed in the ISI database /WoS. The University has approximately 34 thousand students enrolled in 66 undergraduate courses and 153 postgraduate programs.
The annual average of theses and dissertations defended is 2,100 and 99% of its professors have a doctorate degree. This teaching and research battalion leads the national per capita ranking of scientific publications in cataloged international journals. If academic production is calculated by the performance of each researcher, Unicamp is currently the most productive Brazilian university.
Every year, around 800 doctors are graduated, a mark capable of arousing admiration even in leaders of some American and European universities. And in five decades, Unicamp has trained more than 65 thousand young professionals in its undergraduate courses. Furthermore, thousands of professionals trained at the university work in companies, government and social organizations, contributing to the country's economic and social development. As a scientific and cultural hub, the University brought together big names in the academic world. Among them, Cesar Lattes, André Tosello, Gleb Wataghin, Vital Brasil, Giuseppe Cilento, Octávio Ianni, Almeida Prado and Bernardo Caro, among many others.
Located in the State of São Paulo, Unicamp has three campuses — in Campinas, Piracicaba and Limeira — and comprises 24 teaching and research units. It also has a vast health complex (with two large hospital units on the Campinas campus), in addition to 23 interdisciplinary centers and centers, two technical colleges and a series of support units in a universe where around 50 thousand people live and thousands of people develop. of research projects.
Unicamp is an autarchy, autonomous in educational policy, but subordinate to the State Government with regard to subsidies for its operation. Thus, financial resources are obtained mainly from the Government of the State of São Paulo and national and international development institutions.
The campus is named after its founder, Zeferino Vaz, who created it. The University City "Zeferino Vaz" is located in the district of Barão Geraldo, northwest region of Campinas. It is 12km from the city center.
Unicamp was officially founded on October 5, 1966, the day its foundation stone was laid. Even in a recent university context, Unicamp can be considered a young institution that has already achieved a strong tradition in teaching, research and relations with society.
The Unicamp installation project responded to the growing demand for qualified personnel in a region of the country that already in the 1960s held 40% of Brazil's industrial capacity and 24% of its economically active population.
A characteristic of Unicamp was that it escaped the Brazilian tradition of creating universities through the simple accumulation of courses and units. Unlike most institutions, it was created from an idea that encompassed its entire current set. Suffice it to say that, even before it was established, Unicamp had already attracted more than 200 foreign professors from different areas of knowledge to its staff and around 180 from the best Brazilian universities.