Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais - History

History

The origins of the university go back to the 19th century, when it first appeared in the Republic as a continuation of a process that began during the Empire, with the opening of the first institutions of higher education.

In 1898, the Ouro Preto Faculty of Law was transferred to Belo Horizonte, which at the time was set to be the new state capital.

A few new unconnected faculties would be founded later: in 1907, the Free School of Dentistry; in 1911, the Faculty of Medicine, the School of Engineering, and a course in pharmacy attached to the Free School of Dentistry.

A group of patriots, the "Inconfidentes," who rebelled against Portuguese domination, conceived of the idea of a university in the state of Minas Gerais, which was founded as the Universidade de Minas Gerais (UMG) in 1927. The state-subsidized private institution brought together the four institutions of higher learning that existed in Belo Horizonte. UMG remained within the state system until 1949, when it was federalized.

In 1927, these four schools merged to found UMG, University of Minas Gerais, a private institution subsidized by the state government.

The UMG remained funded by Minas Gerais government until 1949, when funding had been delegated to Brazilian Government. Even though, the name UFMG was not adopted until 1965.

In the 1940s, a large area in the Pampulha region became the site for the construction of University City. The first structures erected were the Institute of Mechanics (now the Vocational School) and the Main Building. The effective occupation of the campus by the university community started only in the 1960s, when the construction of the buildings that today house most of the academic units was started.

At the time of federalization, the schools of architecture, philosophy and economics were already integrated in the university. As its expansion carried on, the School of Nursing (1950), Veterinary Science (1961), Information Science (1962), Music (1962) and Physical Education (1969) were founded.

In 1968, a university reform altered profoundly the structure of UFMG. The College of Philosophy spawned multiple institutions: the College of Philosophy and Human Sciences, the Institute of Biological Sciences, the Institute of Exact Sciences, the Institute of Geosciences and the Colleges of Literature and Education.

Additional courses have been established, among them agronomy, archival science, theater, museology, control and automation engineering, computational mathematics, and speech therapy/audiology.