The Federal University of Pelotas – UFPel, where this Symposium is being hosted, is a Brazilian institution of higher education, whose campus is located in the cities of Pelotas and Capão do Leão, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil (see map). Currently, the main Campus is located in the historic building of Anglo in Port zone of Pelotas.
According to a history of the UFPel, at the site of the main campus there was, until 1916, the charqueada of Brutus Almeida and later, there was the Companhia Frigorífica Rio Grande, sold in 1924 to the British firm Westerns Brothers, which transformed the place in the Frigorífico Anglo. Frigorífico Anglo S.A. began operating in Pelotas around 1940 in the neighborhood of Balsa, that was occupied by Anglo employees who came from other cities to live close to their work. The company was created by the British in II World War with the main purpose of sending canned meat to England, to the soldiers of the front.
The University was founded on August 8, 1969. The following schools took part in the formation of UFPel: School of Domestic Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, School of Law, School of Dentistry and Institute of Sociology and Politics, and the traditional School of Agronomy Eliseu Maciel (the oldest in Brazil, having its origins in the Imperial School of Veterinary Medicine and Practical Agriculture founded in 1883). In the same year, on December 16, 1969, UFPel was integrated, besides those from the original nucleus, by the following academic schools: Institute of Biology, Institute of Human Sciences, Institute of Chemistry and Geosciences, Institute of Physics and Mathematics and Institute of Arts. The following institutions were added to the University: Dona Carmen Trápaga Simões School of Fine Arts, School of Medicine and Conservatory of Music . The Piratini Experimental Station; the Training and Information Centre of the South; the University Press; the Central Library; the Museum and Student Housing Accomodation were integrated as supplementary institutions, and the Visconde da Graça Agricultural College and the Rural Domestic Economy College were integrated as complementary units later.
Today, UFPel offers 99 undergraduate courses, 39 master’s degrees and 16 PhD degrees programmes distributed in 20 academic schools. The University has master’s and/or doctoral courses in all areas of knowledge: Exact and Earth Sciences, Biological Sciences, Engineering, Agrarian Sciences, Health Sciences, Applied Social Sciences, Humanities, Linguistics, Letters and Arts, counting also with multidisciplinary courses. For more information, visit the University website: