Our history

The story of UNICEPLAC - University Center of the Central Highlands Apparecido dos Santos -, begins in 1987 when our founder, Professor Apparecido dos Santos, starts the institution with the School of Dentistry, the first of its kind provided by a private higher education institution in capital of Brazil, Brasília, Federal District. The dental course - taught in the campus located in South Lake region - quickly became a national reference, and the best dental surgeons of Brasília graduated from UNICEPLAC.

Overcoming all adversities and facing every challenge, Apparecido dos Santos, an Air Force officer and a dental surgeon and orthodontist himself, showed unparalleled entrepreneurial talent, adding new courses at the South Lake campus, such as Schools of Architecture and Urbanism, Physiotherapy, Accounting, and Administration.

By the end of the 90s, the city of Gama, in the Federal District, was chosen to receive the new phase of the institution, through the implementation of new courses: Schools of Veterinary Medicine, Medicine, Law, and Pharmacy. The presence of the institution in the local community had strong repercussions in its social and economic development, as well as that of nearby neighbourhoods, changing the history of the region.

The founder’s legacy, established by perpetual methodological, pedagogical and technological innovation, brought UNICEPLAC the title of University Center in 2019, after its accreditation with maximum score in its institutional evaluation by the Ministry of Education (MEC), which confirmed its continuous commitment in training professionals capable of fulfilling the mission of helping to solve problems and establishing adequate mechanisms for social coexistence.

Best methodologies and latest innovations

The available academic spaces allow the use of active learning methodologies, enabling an innovative education, in addition to the technological devices that make it possible to carry out simulated practices in up-to-date and modern laboratories.

The Medical Complex, for example, contains a Realistic Simulation and Skills Center, with four rooms for Realistic Simulation - where various techniques to diagnose and treat diseases are put into practice -, and five rooms for Skills, where specific techniques are also practiced, such as bladder probing, pulmonary auscultation, among others.

All these rooms are equipped with the word leading products, offering a fully immersive simulation experience with heightened realism, which are the High Fidelity Manikins. They are installed in labs designed for qualification and training, with current innovations for teaching and learning, making it the region’s most advanced Simulation Center.

UNICEPLAC also has the Veterinary Medicine Complex, with its Realistic Simulation Center equipped with the Hereford Model Dystocia Simulator, a virtual anatomy table, a modern Vet Clinic, operating rooms for large and small animals, a reproduction laboratory, a corral, and a high standard vivarium, among other installations. It is the only institution in the Federal District that has a campus-integrated school clinic and the Bovine Simulator.

The institution also provides a continuous and permanent service to the community, through its Dental Clinic; the Integrated Center for Psychosocial Studies (CIEPSI); the Physiotherapy Center; Esthetic Center; architectural projects and consultancy by the office school of the Architecture and Urbanism course, as well as technical consultancy done by participants in the Accounting course. Additionally, there are: nutritional consultancy through the Nutrition course; ad hoc assistance, and primary and collective health projects through the Nursing course; pharmacological service by the Pharmacy course; and a number of different sports activities offered by the Healthy Campus project, enacted by the Physical Education course.

The qualification of the faculty, alongside the administrative and directive departments, is another trademark of UNICEPLAC. All academic activities are the results of the legacy of the founder of UNICEPLAC, Professor Apparecido dos Santos, whose entrepreneurial energy imposes an on going mission: the training and education of the best professionals for the future.

MISSION

To train ethical and competent professionals in order to work in the job market, articulating knowledge committed to social justice and solidarity, effectively contributing to the full exercise of citizenship and to the development of the Central-West region through humanistic, critical and reflective education.

VISION

To be a reference Higher Education Institution in the region, with a focus on entrepreneurship and interdisciplinarity, in the pursuit of citizen and professional training for its students, working with qualified professionals, adequate infrastructure, and critical and active pedagogical models, aiming to contribute to the improvement of education nationwide and for the sustainable development of the Central-West region and the country.

VALUES

Ethics; Competence; Universality of Knowledge and Promotion of Interdisciplinarity; Planning and Evaluation as Guiding Principles of Institutional Practice; Social Inclusion; Quality; Social and Environmental Responsibility; Transformative Education; and Democratic and Participatory Management.