Universidade Federal do Paraná

The Federal University of Paraná (Portuguese: Universidade Federal do Paraná, UFPR) is a public university headquartered in Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil.

UFPR ranks as 37th best university in Latin-America and it is among the 651-700 best universities in the world, according to QS World University Rankings. It is placed as the 9th best university in Brazil in the latest "Ranking Universitário Folha (RUF)", published by the nation's largest newspaper.

Nowadays, its facilities are spread over the capital Curitiba and other cities of the State of Paraná. It offers 124 undergraduate degree courses, 44 doctorate, 66 masters and 5 professional masters programs, apart from a number of lato sensu programs (mostly paid one-year specializations) - see Higher-ed degrees in Brazil.

Since 2009 internal elections the University is run by Rector Zaki Akel Sobrinho, D.Sc. in Administration from Universidade de São Paulo, and Vice-Rector Rogerio Andrade Mulinari, D.Sc. in Medicine from Universidade Federal de São Paulo, and with a Post-Doc from Boston University.

In 1892, José Francisco da Rocha Pombo, an intellectual of the state of Paraná would have initiated the construction of the University, but his project was frustrated by the Federalist Movement.

Twenty years later, Paraná had a reduced number of intellectuals (nine doctors and four engineers), but it was in true development because of the production of the yerba mate.

Moreover, at this time, the Contestado War appeared as an incentive to the efforts of political leaderships concerning the creation of a university. In this context, Victor Ferreira do Amaral, deputy and director of public instruction of Paraná, started the effective creation of the University.