Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo

University in São Paulo, Brazil

The Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (Portuguese: Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, PUC-SP), locally known as PUC or the Catholic University (Universidade Católica), is a private and non-profit Catholic university. It is one of the largest and most prestigious universities of Brazil. It is maintained by the Catholic Archdiocese of São Paulo. The university is also responsible for the St. Lucinda Hospital (Sorocaba) and the TUCA theatre (São Paulo) Most of the scientific production in PUC-SP is in the areas of law, philosophy, social sciences, economics, education, social service, and communications; in these areas, it is considered one of the most important universities in Latin America, and internationally recognized by the issues and research in disorders of human communication, political economics, semiotics and psychology. It has national and international recognition for its teaching and tradition, appearing in excellent positions in many Brazilians and globals university rankings (with due regard to the criteria and methodologies used). In 2016, for example, according to the Brazilian Ranking de Universidades da Folha (RUF), the institution was considered the best private university of Brazil by the category of teaching quality. Besides that, fifteen courses from PUC-SP are the best in the country among private universities and another eight are among the top five. Nowadays, the university is in a privileged position: the annually published Ministry of Education's official ranking of higher education indicates that PUC-SP is considered the best private university in the State of São Paulo (the largest, richest and most populous state in the whole country) and the second best private university in Brazil (just after the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro PUC-RJ). Internationally, it figured in the 2016 QS World University Rankings (Quacquarelli Symonds) as the 38th best university in Latin America, the 52nd best university in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and, according to the same ranking, in 2018, it was considered the 21st best university in Latin America. In 2019, QS Ranking also classified PUC-SP as the 49th best university in the BRICS group and sixth in Brazil (behind USP, Unicamp, UFRJ, Unifesp e Unesp). Thus, not only academically, the university stands out with its visibility in the market. PUC-SP is one of the most respected institutions in the job market in all Latin America and in the BRICS countries. A professional formed by PUC is highly valued: the British ranking also classified the university as the fourth best Brazilian university in employability and 19th in Latin America. PUC-SP was the first university in Brazil to offer graduate programmes in the areas of Philosophy, Multimedia, Social Service, Psychology of Learning, Applied Linguistics and Speech-language Therapy. It also was the second university to offer a bachelor's degree in International Relations, which offers "double diplôme" for selected students that can finish their studies in Sciences Po. Since 2003, PUC-SP participates in the joint graduate program in International Relations Programa San Tiago Dantas together with UNICAMP and UNESP, one of the most important graduate programmes in the area in Brazil. Since 2010 it also offers a joint master's degree with Pantheon-Sorbonne University at "Economie de La Mondialisation" ("Mestrado Profissional em Economia da Mundialização e do Desenvolvimento"). Despite being maintained by the Catholic Archdiocese, PUC-SP is well recognized in the city of São Paulo as a liberal environment since its professors and alumni's historical political engagements during the military dictatorship, especially within its main Perdizes campus, which hosts the Philosophy, Social Sciences, Communications, Arts and Humanities courses. In 2020, the average annual fee was about US$6700, making it one of the most expensive universities in Brazil. However, there are several full scholarships available for excellent students and undergraduates with financial difficulties; for those who are scholarship recipients, one free meal a day and free transportation is also offered. Besides postgraduate programms (29 Masters and PhDs), research is also encouraged at the undergraduate level: every year the university provides almost 400 research grants (US$800/ year) for the Institutional Scientific Initiation Program (similar to the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program in the U.S.), a national integrated system organized by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) that makes research undergrad students 2,2 times more likely to achieve a master's degree and 1,51 time to became a PhD. In 2010, 80% of employees had a college degree. In 2020, 63,3% of PUC-SP's researchers were women. From Wikipedia