Initiatives

The social event “Universidade Aberta” has been held for 21 years at the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar),  São Carlos Campus, with the goal of promoting preparatory courses for the college entrance examination to high school students and the 8th and 9th grade students of elementary school. The project seeks to increase these young people's interest in knowledge, science, professions and the continuation of their studies. 

The main objective is to awaken the interest of future university students in different areas of knowledge, through the undergraduate courses offered by UFSCar. To achieve this goal, during the event, lectures are offered by the coordinators of the undergraduate courses at UFSCar, addressing what the course is about, explaining the curriculum, laboratory activities and the job market. 

For the participants of the “Universidade Aberta”, usually high school students, the day becomes a pleasant one with a visit to the laboratories of interest and infrastructures, a general visit to the campus with guidance, a visit to the community library, chat with university students and the most  important,  the lectures with the coordinators of the courses of interest.

The event is held in the lower hall of the Community Library, where each course has its stand and the schedules of lectures are published, together with distribution of folders about the university course and a video demonstration of some experiments by the undergraduate students of the respective course as well as a visitation to laboratories.

Initially, the proposal was to organize a small event however, over the years, it had regional and state connotations and has now gained extremely large proportions with the arrival of people from other states, especially neighboring states such as Minas Gerais, Paraná and Rio de Janeiro.

For the realization of the event, the Department of Materials Engineering (DEMa) has contributed through its faculty in the organization of this event, with the expressive participation of students  and with full support of the course Coordinator, but the official organization of the event is held by the Dean of Graduation (PROGRAD) of the UFSCar.