Founded on October 19, 1961, by the Sociedade Goiana de Cultura, a non-profit foundation maintained by the Catholic Archdiocese of Goiânia, PUC Goiás is the oldest higher education institution of the state and of the Central-Western region, preceding by two months the foundation of UFG.
In 1948, Dom Emmanuel Gomes de Oliveira, then Archbishop of Goiânia, had the idea of creating the first university of the Central-Western Brazil.
Later that year, the Philosophy College was launched as the first higher education institution of the region, offering degrees in history, geography, Portuguese, and teaching.
[2] According to the latest results of the General Index of Courses uncovered by the National Institute of Studies and Research on Education (Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas Educacionais - INEP), linked to the Ministry of Education, PUC Goiás is the second best university in the state of Goiás, behind only UFG and ahead of UEG.
The university also has a library with over 213,000 books, a school of foreign languages, a local television network (PUC-TV), four research institutes, over 400 laboratories, two school-clinics and two museums.