Throughout the years the University has achieved a high reputation as an institution of learning and leadership, combining strategic vision with a capacity to innovate, and rigorous scientific, academic, administrative and financial management.

The University of Minho is organised in Schools and Institutes. These permanent organic units assure teaching, research and other specialised services in their respective field of scientific knowledge.

The research is strategically planned with the surrounding socio-economic environment in mind. Research programmes are organised in Research Centres, Institutes and Groups, and the University is committed to several projects in purely national programmes – POCTI, POSI, AGRO, PRIME, etc - and to many projects supported by international frameworks, namely the European Union’s.

The University is located in the Minho region of Northern Portugal, a region with an extremely strong tradition of vibrant enterprise, essentially of small and medium-sized businesses. UMinho has two campi located 20 km apart: one in Braga and the other in Guimarães.

The city of Braga has a centuries-old affiliation with Culture and the Arts, and is firmly established in the service industry sector. It is here, in this city, that the following institutes and schools are installed: the Institutes of Arts and Humanities; Social Sciences; and Child Studies; the Schools of Sciences; Health Sciences; Nursing; and Law, as well as some Engineering areas.

The Rectorate is located in the heart of historical Braga, at Largo do Paço.

Guimarães, often referred to as the birth place of the nation, is dominated by the manufacturing sector with a strong investment in the Textile and Clothing, Metallurgy and Shoemaking Industries. The campus of Azurém, Guimarães, is home to the School of Engineering, and the courses of Architecture, Fashion Design and Marketing, Geography and Planning, and Applied Mathematics.

Schools and Departments

The Schools are permanent Organic Units which ensure research, teaching and other specialised services in the respective scientific context, and they group the Departments according to related scientific and pedagogical interests.

The Schools correspond to knowledge areas traditionally grouped in Faculties. However, since they do not include the management of teaching projects, Faculties and Schools are not formally equivalents.

The Departments are permanent organisations for the creation and transmission of knowledge in the context of a discipline or group of disciplines. Hence, they represent the base cell of the scientific, pedagogic, and human and material resources management organisation in a consolidated knowledge area. They incorporate lecturers and researchers connected to the discipline or group of disciplines that define the Department, as well as the technical and administrative staff, who work in the laboratories and services on which it depends.

Research & Development

At UMinho research is strategically planned with the surrounding socio-economic environment in mind.

In the interests of further consolidating its internationalisation, the University of Minho has developed a coherent, comprehensive and global policy to support the strengthening of its links with more than 200 foreign universities. This international dimension is easily demonstrated by the significant number of research projects financed by the European Union.

Furthermore, the University of Minho cooperates with a great number of international, academic networks. Of all the Portuguese universities, in fact, UMinho coordinates and participates in the highest number of ALFA projects - projects which allow collaboration with higher education institutions in Latin America.

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Leaflet WASTES2011