Quick Summary
Universidade Federal de Uberlândia (UFU) is a public federal university founded in 1969 in Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, and formally federalized in 1978, now enrolling roughly 26,270 students across all levels. It operates seven campuses in four cities, offers free undergraduate tuition typical of Brazilian federal universities, and runs its own major teaching hospital, HC-UFU, the largest SUS provider in the Triângulo Mineiro region. Admission for most students runs through ENEM/SiSU or UFU's own Vestibular exam, while non-Brazilian applicants from partner countries can enter tuition-free via the PEC-G program administered through Brazilian embassies. In the 2026 CWUR Global 2000 ranking UFU placed 1,283rd worldwide (top 6.1%) and 28th among Brazilian universities, and it appeared in seven subject areas of the THE World University Rankings by Subject 2026, though it remains outside ARWU's ranked tier and in QS's 801+ band.
01
Institutional Profile
Who they are
UFU offers tuition-free undergraduate education as a Brazilian federal university, admitting students through ENEM/SiSU or its own Vestibular exam rather than charging fees seen at private Brazilian or foreign institutions. Its teaching hospital, HC-UFU, is the largest SUS (public health system) provider in the Triângulo Mineiro region, giving Medicine, Nursing, and allied-health students clinical exposure across roughly 50 residency specialties and a 520-bed facility. The university spans seven campuses across four cities (Uberlândia, Ituiutaba, Monte Carmelo, Patos de Minas), letting students choose a smaller regional campus (e.g., Pontal in Ituiutaba) or the larger, research-dense Santa Mônica/Umuarama campuses in Uberlândia itself. UFU also holds three federally-designated INCT research institutes (TeraNano, Odonto, EIE) and, as of the 2026 CWUR rankings, sits in the top 6.1% of universities worldwide (1,283rd of 21,291) and 28th nationally in Brazil, giving prospective students externally verifiable evidence of its research standing beyond self-description.
Founded1969
TypePublic federal research university
Total Students26,270 total enrolled across all modalities (20,285 undergraduate, 3,992 stricto sensu graduate, plus specialization, residency, and basic-education students), per UFU Open Data (dados.ufu.br)
Intl StudentsNot Available
Faculty RatioNot Available
CampusMulti-campus, spread across four cities in the Triângulo Mineiro region of Minas Gerais (Uberlândia, Ituiutaba, Monte Carmelo, Patos de Minas)
Campus SizeMain Santa Mônica campus covers approximately 280,119 m² (about 28 hectares); UFU operates seven campuses in total (Santa Mônica, Umuarama, Educação Física, and Glória in Uberlândia, plus Pontal in Ituiutaba, Monte Carmelo, and Patos de Minas)
Affiliated HospitalsHospital de Clínicas de Uberlândia (HC-UFU), a 520-bed general and high-complexity teaching hospital run with Ebserh, inaugurated in 1970 and serving as the largest SUS (public health system) provider in the region, with care for roughly 3.5 million people and training for UFU's Medicine, Nursing, Dentistry, Nutrition, Psychology, Physiotherapy, and Biomedical Science students.
AccreditationPublic federal university recognized under Brazilian Law No. 6,532 (May 24, 1978); undergraduate and graduate programs regulated and evaluated by Brazil's Ministry of Education (MEC) and graduate programs rated by CAPES, with most UFU stricto sensu programs rated CAPES concept 4 or 5.
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Global Standing
Three independent ranking systems
QS World 2026
#801+
Quacquarelli Symonds
Times Higher Ed
#1201-1500
THE World University
ARWU Shanghai
Not Available
Academic Ranking
03
Academics & Research
What you can study
Undergraduate (bacharelado/licenciatura), stricto sensu graduate (mestrado/doutorado), lato sensu specialization, medical/health residency, and technical/professional education across roughly 97 undergraduate courses and 78 stricto sensu graduate programs.
Programs
Yes — UFU offers doctoral (doutorado) programs within its roughly 78 stricto sensu graduate courses, most rated CAPES concept 4 or 5, spanning fields such as Engineering, Computer Science, Health Sciences, and Chemistry, alongside 173 active post-doctoral researchers.
PhD Programs
Yes — UFU's Centro de Educação a Distância (CEaD/UFU) offers EAD (distance-education) undergraduate, specialization, and continuing-education courses in addition to on-campus programs.
Online Programs
UFU hosts three federally-designated National Institutes of Science and Technology (INCTs): INCT TeraNano (theranostics and nanobiotechnology), INCT Odonto (oral and dental health), and INCT-EIE (intelligent structures in engineering); its Multiuser Laboratories Network (Relam) supports shared research infrastructure across departments.
Research Centers
UFU ranked 1,283rd of 21,291 universities worldwide (top 6.1%) in the 2026 CWUR Global 2000 ranking, placing 28th nationally in Brazil and 46th in Latin America and the Caribbean with a score of 69.1, driven largely by its 1,237th-place global position in CWUR's Research pillar. In the THE World University Rankings by Subject 2026, UFU placed in seven of eleven subject areas, including bands of 601-800 for Medical and Health Sciences and 601+ for Education Studies. The university hosts three federal INCT research institutes (TeraNano, Odonto, and EIE) and most of its stricto sensu graduate programs are now rated CAPES concept 4 or 5. UFU's CAPES-Print internationalization program and its Global.edu-approved cooperation network with over 187 institutional agreements also support co-authored international publications, though UFU does not yet appear in ARWU's ranked tier.
Research Output
Public federal university recognized under Brazilian Law No. 6,532 (May 24, 1978); undergraduate and graduate programs regulated and evaluated by Brazil's Ministry of Education (MEC) and graduate programs rated by CAPES, with most UFU stricto sensu programs rated CAPES concept 4 or 5.
Accreditation
04
Admissions Brief
What it takes to get in
Entry Requirements
Acceptance RateNot Available
IELTSNot Available
TOEFLNot Available
Min GPANot Available
GRENot Available
GMATNot Available
SATNot Available
ACTNot Available
Key Dates
Application deadlines are being updated. Check the official website for current dates.
Required Documents
TranscriptsSOPEnglish ScoresLORsPassport
Insider Tip
Most UFU undergraduate seats are filled through Brazil's national SiSU system using ENEM scores or through UFU's own Vestibular exam, so applicants should track each course's nota de corte (cutoff score) from prior cycles — Medicine's cutoff has run near the top of all Brazilian public universities. International applicants who are not Brazilian nationals typically enter through the PEC-G program (Programa de Estudantes-Convênio de Graduação), which requires application through a Brazilian embassy or consulate in the student's home country rather than directly to UFU, and is limited to countries with an educational cooperation agreement with Brazil. Because SiSU and Vestibular seats reserve a large share (in 2026, 1,678 of 3,279 SiSU places) for quota candidates — public-school, low-income, and self-declared Black, Brown, Indigenous, or quilombola students — applicants should check which modality they qualify for before applying. Note that competitive engineering and health courses (Aeronautical Engineering, Medicine, Dentistry) draw cutoff scores and candidate ratios far above less-sought programs, so building a course shortlist around realistic score bands matters more than a single overall acceptance rate.
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Cost Ledger
Amounts in Brazilian Real
Living Cost
R$61,428/yr
per year · BRL
Application Fee
$22
one time · USD
Total Estimated Annual Cost
R$61,428/yr
tuition + living + essentials · BRL
Scholarships AvailableYes — UFU's PROAE (Pró-Reitoria de Assistência Estudantil) administers need-based Auxílio-Moradia, Auxílio-Alimentação (including free access to the Restaurante Universitário), transport, digital-inclusion, childcare, and accessibility stipends under Brazil's national PNAES framework, plus dedicated Mobilidade Internacional aid for students going on exchange; separately, PEC-G participants receive tuition exemption and can access Promisaes living stipends.
Financial AidYes — need-based assistance is coordinated through PROAE across ten PNAES-mandated areas (housing, food, transport, health, digital inclusion, culture, sport, childcare, pedagogical support, and accessibility), applied for each semester by students demonstrating financial need via Brazil's CadÚnico social registry or equivalent documentation.
Work-StudyYes — UFU offers Bolsas de Iniciação Científica (undergraduate research stipends), monitoria (teaching-assistant) scholarships, and extension-project bolsas funded through CNPq, FAPEMIG, and internal UFU budgets, which function as paid on-campus work-study positions for enrolled students.
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Featured & Popular Programs
A sample from Undergraduate (bacharelado/licenciatura), stricto sensu graduate (mestrado/doutorado), lato sensu specialization, medical/health residency, and technical/professional education across roughly 97 undergraduate courses and 78 stricto sensu graduate programs. programs total
| Program | Level | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Medicine | BACHELOR | 3-4 YRS |
| Aeronautical Engineering | MASTER | 1-2 YRS |
| Computer Engineering | PHD | 3-5 YRS |
| Computer Science | MBA | 12-24 MO |
| Dentistry | BACHELOR | 3-4 YRS |
| Veterinary Medicine | MASTER | 1-2 YRS |
| and Nursing are consistently the most competitive courses in UFU's Vestibular and SiSU admissions (Medicine drew roughly 10 | PHD | 3-5 YRS |
| 432 applicants for 60 places | MBA | 12-24 MO |
| about 174 candidates per seat | BACHELOR | 3-4 YRS |
| in a recent SiSU cycle). | MASTER | 1-2 YRS |
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Career Outcomes
Where graduates land
Not Available
Average Salary After Graduation
Not Available
Employment Rate
Industry Connections
UFU's teaching hospitalHC-UFUis the largest SUS provider in the region and functions as a direct clinical-placement pipeline for MedicineNursingDentistryNutritionPsychologyand Physiotherapy students across roughly 50 residency programs. The Aeronautical Engineering programamong UFU's most competitive coursesconnects students to Brazil's aerospace sector centered in nearby São Paulo state (home to Embraer)reflecting the Triângulo Mineiro region's broader logistics and agribusiness industrial base. UFU's Multiuser Laboratories Network (Relam) and its three INCT research institutes (TeraNanoOdontoEIE) create applied-research ties with external funding bodies such as CNPq and FAPEMIG. Howeverpublicly available data on formal corporate partnership counts or structured internship-placement rates for the university as a whole was not found in official UFU sources during this research.
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Campus & Student Life
Life beyond lectures
Housing
Yes — UFU's Pró-Reitoria de Assistência Estudantil (PROAE) operates a Moradia Estudantil with 150 spaces across 26 furnished apartments on Avenida Venezuela, 1352 (Bairro Tibery, Uberlândia), prioritized for low-income and out-of-town students, mainly those admitted via ENEM/SiSU.
Sports Facilities
UFU maintains Centros Esportivos Universitários (university sports centers) coordinated through PROAE, offering courts and facilities used for student sports programs and inter-campus competitions.
Student Clubs
Not Available
Library Resources
UFU's Sistema de Bibliotecas (SISBI) runs the Biblioteca Central Santa Mônica (BCMON) plus sectional libraries at Umuarama, Educação Física, Basic Education, Pontal, Patos de Minas, Monte Carmelo, Hospital de Clínicas, and Glória, cataloged under the Universal Decimal Classification (CDU), with an online catalog at acervo.bibliotecas.ufu.br and a subscription-based digital collection.
Exchange Programs
UFU's Diretoria de Relações Internacionais (DRI) maintains over 187 active international cooperation agreements across more than 20 countries, supporting outbound mobility for undergraduates (over 2,000 students in study-abroad programs to date) and expanding partnerships with China, Russia, and France.
Summer Programs
Not Available