State University of Maringá

The State University of Maringá is a public institution in the south of Brazil. A non-profit university founded in 1969, SUM consistently ranks well among similar institutions in the country, and has previously made the top 15 in Brazil’s Science Citation Index. A relatively small institution in the prosperous southern state of Paraná, it is located in Maringá, a medium-sized city in the north-west of the state which is an agricultural centre that has been home to a prominent Japanese community for much of its history since it was founded in 1947. Crossed by the Tropic of Capricorn, Maringá is 300km north west of Paraguay, and slightly further from the border with Argentina. SUM has seven campuses in total, though most academic activity takes place in the Maringá Campus. The campus in Cianorte, 80km west of Maringá, runs accounting sciences, design, fashion and pedagogy courses. Students at the Umuarama campus, 125km east of the border with Paraguay, can learn civil engineering, environmental engineering, food engineering, food technology, civil construction technology, environmental technology, agronomy and veterinary medicine. Ivaiporã’s, 225km south east of Maringá, covers history and physical education. The Goioerê Campus, just over 150km south east of Maringa, runs production engineering, physics and textile engineering courses. The Arenito Campus in Cidade Gaúcha, 125km west, teaches agricultural engineering. The other campus is in Diamante de Norte, 150km north west and just shy of the River Paranapanema, which acts as the border between Paraná and the state of São Paulo. The university also now offers a range of distance learning courses as part of the Open University System of Brazil.