The University of the State of Rio Grande do Norte UERN is located in seven cities in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, in Northeastern Brazil. an Institution that attracts students from all over the country, public, free, quality and socially referenced by their actions.  Created in 1968, as a municipal University, today UERN has 7 campuses, including the Central Campus, in Mossoró, the second largest city in the state, and 11 nuclei. The advanced campuses are located in Assu, Pau dos Ferros, Patu, Natal, Caicó, and more recently in Apodi. UERN's presence in the state is so well distributed that there is not a single city more than 70 km away from one of these university units.

More and more effectively, UERN has been fulfilling the role of inducer, acting on at least three fronts: training of human resources, production of knowledge about the region and formulation of proposals for its development. UERN currently offers 56 undergraduate courses in the classroom and 5 in the EAD mode.  Undergraduate courses, in which more than 9,000 students are enrolled. Each year the Institution admits about 2500 students, mostly from humble families. It currently offers several graduate courses, attended by more than 1400 students, 22 master's courses (Physics, Computer Science, Languages, Natural Sciences, Education, Social Sciences and Humanities, Health and Society, Teaching, Social Service and Social Rights, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Professional in Letters, Planning and Territorial Dynamics of the Semi-arid), 4 PhD courses (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Letters) besides offering two courses of Medical Residency in Family and Community Medicine, Gynecology and Obstetrics, and a Multiprofessional Residency. In the research area, the institution has 108 registered research groups. The progress, in the area of teaching and research, is also visible in the field of extension: many projects approved, there are 279 extension actions registered, with 649 teachers, 105 technicians, and 1,394 students involved.

 Today we have a faculty of 782 professors with more than 90% of these with master’s and doctoral degrees and a staff of administrative technicians formed by 651 highly trained employees. The institution IS RECOGNIZED and all its courses are recognized.