Unesp employs about 3,500 teachers, in addition to another 10,600 employees in various positions. The university provides 171 options for undergraduate courses in 62 higher education professions, with a total of over 45,000 students, of which 5,600 new professionals are trained annually by Unesp. About 10,000 students study in 118 postgraduate programs, with 117 academic masters, 6 professional masters and 93 academic doctorates. The academic year at Unesp follows a two-semester schedule, with slight differences depending on the courses and programs chosen. The spring semester runs from August - December and the fall semester from February - June. In the recent decade Brazil has generally become more widely recognized as a good academic environment (developing alongside the rest of the countries economy). But with the economic crisis some universities in Brazil have struggled in the last years; the number of publications authored and co-authored from UNESP however, has continually risen since 2012.
Admissions Admissions to Unesp are restricted by a state-wide, general admissions exam, known as
vestibular. For
architecture,
arts and
design undergraduate courses, additional specific exams are required. Prepared by VUNESP, an institution specialized in exams organization, Unesp vestibular are held on three days, separated in two phases. • The first phase consists of 90 questions in the following disciplines:
philosophy,
Portuguese,
mathematics,
chemistry,
biology,
geography,
history,
physics and
English or
Spanish. • The second phase of exams, separated in two days, is made up of specific questions in Humane and Natural Sciences on the first day. The second day of the second phase consists of specific questions in Languages (Portuguese and English or Spanish) and a writing exam. A student can only apply for a single course in the São Paulo State University system, preventing a simultaneous application for e.g. History and Geography.
Exchange programmes Unesp has 140 international exchange and cooperation agreements with institutions of higher education in 52 countries. The main exchange countries for Unesp are currently
Argentina,
Canada,
China,
France,
Germany,
Portugal,
Spain,
Russia, the
United States and
Scotland. To further support international students the university launched a program called "International Courses" in 2013. The program comprised four different areas initially:
Agricultural Sciences,
Alternative Energy,
Dentistry and
Literature and
Linguistics.
Rankings and reputation In 2012, Unesp ranked second among public universities in the "VIII Best Universities Award", annually presented by the student publication guide, Editora Abril. In 2013, the UK publication Times Higher Education (THE) pointed to Unesp, alongside Unicamp, as one of the World's Top 100 "Young" Universities (under 50 years old) and as the 11th best university in emerging countries. QS World University Rankings ranked the University of São Paulo as the 9th best in Latin America (2014), the 34th best in BRICS, The Academic Classification of World Universities (ARWU) of 2017 ranked Unesp in the 301st-400th group of the best universities in the world and as the third best institution of higher education in Brazil. The institution was also ranked as the 8th best university in Latin America, the 4th in Brazil and the 408th in the world by the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities in 2017. Unesp ranked in the 151-200th group of the Young University Rankings 2018 and in the 601-800th group of the World University Rankings 2018 by THE. == Research ==