University of São Paulo Law School, Ribeirão Preto

The Faculty of Law (FD), the traditional Largo São Francisco school, and the Law School of Ribeirão Preto (FDRP) were awarded OAB Recommends Seal of Quality. This award was granted by the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) to 161 institutions across the country.

USP Institutional Relations superintendent, Ignácio Maria Poveda Velasco, stood in for rector Vahan Agopyan at the award ceremony, which took place in January 30th, at the OAB headquarters in Brasília.

“This is a recognition of the excellence of USP’s Law Schools, whose students show a high approval rate in the bar exam”, said Poveda, who is also a faculty member at FD and former FDRP dean.

Claudio Lamachia, OAB national president, criticized the Ministry of Education’s past policy of approving Law undergraduate courses and asked that the current administration clarifies the supposed criteria that allowed over 1500 undergraduate law courses to function.

“OAB has been exposing the educational larceny supported by MEC’s former administrations, regarding arbitrary approval of law schools, without proper control and regard for the quality of education. The time has come to open MEC’s “black box”, in order to know the real reasons behind this irresponsible practice, which preys on society as a whole”, said Lamachia.

Instituted in 2001, the OAB Recommends Seal of Quality is awarded to Brazilian higher education institutions that stand out in their education to bachelors in Law, combining two requirements: their performance in the National Student Performance Exam (Enade) and their approval rate in the Bar Exam.

In its 6th edition, out of 1212 courses that met the requirements to take part in the survey, only 161 institutions were awarded the Seal of Quality.