Universidade Estadual Paulista

São Paulo State University

Universidade Estadual Paulista "Júlio de Mesquita Filho"
Other name	UNESP
Type	Public university system
Established	1976
Budget	R$1.496 billion
Rector	Julio Cezar Durigan
Academic staff	3,316
Administrative staff	7,138
Students	47,917
Undergraduates	35,284
Postgraduates	12,633
Location	Araçatuba, Araraquara, Assis, Bauru, Botucatu, Dracena, Franca, Guaratinguetá, Ilha Solteira, Itapeva, Jaboticabal, Marília, Ourinhos, Presidente Prudente, Registro, Rio Claro, Rosana, São João da Boa Vista, São José do Rio Preto, São José dos Campos, São Paulo, Santos, Sorocaba and Tupã, São Paulo, Brazil
Affiliations	Compostela Group of Universities
Website	unesp.br

São Paulo State University (Portuguese: Universidade Estadual Paulista "Júlio de Mesquita Filho", UNESP) is one of the six public universities of the Brazilian state of São Paulo, with USP, FATEC, UNICAMP UFABC, UNIFESP and UFSCar. It is part of the state’s higher education system.

UNESP has a combined student body of almost 40,000 spread among its 23 campuses. The first of them is the Araraquara Pharmacy and Odontology Faculty, founded in 1923 and incorporated by the state of São Paulo in 1956. Before the university’s official foundation in 1976, its original 12 campuses were public independent faculties.

UNESP has 33 faculties or institutes, 30 libraries, two hospitals, three animal hospitals, five farms and seven complementary units.

São Paulo State University is considered the sixth most important university in Brazil, according to the Ranking Universitário Folha, ninth most important university in the QS Latin American University Rankings. It is ranked amongst the 300 best universities in the world as of the "Academic Ranking of World Universities - 2012" and third best in the QS World University Ranking#Brics 2014.

Universities in Brazil are a recent phenomenon, compared to other Latin American countries. It was in 1808 that the first one was created (Rio de Janeiro Medicine Faculty). Before the 20th century, there was not a single university in the country. All of them were public or church-maintained higher education independent institutes.

Rio de Janeiro Federal University was the first one, containing every faculty inside Rio de Janeiro city in 1926. São Paulo’s first university was USP, founded in 1933. By the 1950s, countryside people had to move toward capitals for undergraduate study. There were few higher education institutes outside Brazilian metropolises then. São Paulo state government created many colleges outside the capital in the 1950s and 1960s. Preeminent cities in the state received these isolated institutes, known as “Faculdade de Filosofia”.