Universidade Metodista de Piracicaba

The Methodist University of Piracicaba (Portuguese: Universidade Metodista de Piracicaba), also known as Unimep, is a Brazilian private higher education institution located in the state of São Paulo. The university offers teaching, research, and outreach activities, in a wide range of knowledge areas. The origin of Unimep is linked to the Colegio Piracicabano founded in 1881 by the American missionary Martha Watts. This gave rise in 1964 to the first higher education programs, in economics, management, and accounting, initially incorporated as Faculdades Integradas. This expansion ended up in Unimep being granted university status by the Brazilian Ministry of Education in 1975 as the first Methodist university in Latin America. Currently, Unimep offers more than 50 undergraduate and graduate programs, including doctorates, and counts approximately 11 thousand students in its four campuses: Taquaral and Centro, both of them in Piracicaba, as well as Santa Bárbara d'Oeste and Lins.