The Graduate Program in Language Studies of UFF (Universidade Federal Fluminense – Fluminense Federal University)was authorized by CAPES (Agency for the Further Education of Higher Education Personnel) in 2009 and became operational in 2010. It originated from the former Graduate Language and Literature Program, created in 1970, that was split into two different graduate programs: Language Studies and Literary Studies.

After having existed for about 40 years, awarding masters and doctoral degrees in the areas of Language Studies and Literary Studies, UFF’s Graduate Language and Literature Program had about 300 students and 60 professors. In 2006, at its Administrative Board last annual meeting, announced its need to subdivide in order to create two different graduate programs, namely, Language Studies and Literary Studies, considering that the two areas within the parent program: a) were well consolidated, had a scientific production level compatible with the requirements to establish a new program; b) were balanced and fairly homogeneous, with similar numbers regarding professors (about 30), students (about 150) and scientific production; c) would be able to display a better defined academic profile for the Capes evaluation, hoping to have even better conditions for development and expansion, as is the case with other programs that focus on more specific lines of research; d) would have greater relevance and political and academic representation both at the regional and at national and international levels. Consequently, the proposed division met academic and administrative requirements, which allowed the two new programs to organize themselves in a more organic, specific and consistent manner.

Over the three following years, the new programs’ Administrative Board worked on revising their curricula, lines of research and courses in order to adjust their academic profile to the qualification and experience of their faculty members and to cater for the research and training demands of our country’s tertiary education system.

In 2007, the proposed division was approved by the Administrative Boards of the three centers where UFF’s Graduate Language and Literature Program was active: the Centre for General Studies, the Institute of Letters and the Program itself. Based on their favorable decisions, the internal committees responsible for the two new programs drafted their Bylaws, the Proposal to be submitted for approval, and the Curricula for the Language Studies and Literary Studies Programs. In 2008, the proposal was approved by UFF’s two highest levels of authority — the Board of Education and Research and the University Council. Early in 2009, the formal Proposal for the approval of the new Programs were submitted to CAPES. The new Programs, both with a CAPES evaluation grade of 5, were approved late in October 2009, and began operating fully in 2010. This epitomizes the consolidation of two major areas — Language and Literature, in terms of its faculty members and students, lines of research and research projects, academic and technical production, in sum, the growth and maturity of a Program that would have reached 40 years of existence in 2010 with nationwide recognition, and that now continues divided into two new programs.

The Masters Degree of UFF’s Graduate Program in Language Studies aims at training individuals to do research and to teach in the field of Language Studies, in the area of Linguistics, and who are able to perform competently primarily in the Southeast Region of Brazil and to serve other regions of the nation as well as to continue their academic education at graduate level.

At the doctoral level, the Graduate Program in Language Studies aims at training individuals who can become autonomous, outstanding scientific researchers who can excel in higher education teaching, who are committed to fostering the ability to seek different sources of information and reflection and to promoting intellectual productivity beyond the classroom boundaries and beyond the core courses in the Curriculum, in a permanent expansion of scientific knowledge in the field of Language Studies, in the area of Linguistics.