The University of Brasilia (UnB) was conceived in order to become the best educational experience in Latin America. It was supposed to generate a community of researchers able to investigate and offer solutions to the problems of Brazilian society. According to Darcy Ribeiro, the UnB was born a foundation. It was, therefore, a self-governed university and nobody there was to be discriminated against for reasons of political or religious persuasion.

The university offered, from the start, graduate courses, in addition to undergraduate ones. There were eight Central Institutes (Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geo-sciences, Human Sciences, Literature and the Arts), each one made up of departments, to which young lecturers from different regions in the country were attracted. Permanent exchange among the Institutes was also expected. Several educators expressed their views on the project: Almeida Júnior, Celso Furtado, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Florestan Fernandes, Jayme Abreu, Maria Yedda Linhares, and others.