The Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (, PUC-SP), locally known as PUC or the Catholic University (), is a private and non-profit Catholic university. It is one of the largest and most prestigious universities of Brazil. It is maintained by the Catholic Archdiocese of São Paulo. The university is also responsible for the St. Lucinda Hospital (Sorocaba) and the TUCA theatre (São Paulo) Most of the scientific production in PUC-SP is in the areas of law, philosophy, social sciences, economics, education, social service, and communications; in these areas, it is considered one of the most important universities in Latin America, and internationally recognized by the issues and research in disorders of human communication, political economics, semiotics and psychology. It has national and international recognition for its teaching and tradition, appearing in excellent positions in many Brazilians and globals university rankings (with due regard to the criteria and methodologies used). In 2016, for example, according to the Brazilian Ranking de Universidades da Folha (RUF), the institution was considered the best private university of Brazil by the category of teaching quality. Besides that, fifteen courses from PUC-SP are the best in the country among private universities and another eight are among the top five. Nowadays, the university is in a privileged position: the annually published Ministry of Education's official ranking of higher education indicates that PUC-SP is considered the best private university in the State of São Paulo (the largest, richest and most populous state in the whole country) and the second best private university in Brazil (just after the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro PUC-RJ). Internationally, it figured in the 2016 QS World University Rankings (Quacquarelli Symonds) as the 38th best university in Latin America, the 52nd best university in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and, according to the same ranking, in 2018, it was considered the 21st best university in Latin America. In 2019, QS Ranking also classified PUC-SP as the 49th best university in the BRICS group and sixth in Brazil (behind USP, Unicamp, UFRJ, Unifesp e Unesp). Thus, not only academically, the university stands out with its visibility in the market. PUC-SP is one of the most respected institutions in the job market in all Latin America and in the BRICS countries. A professional formed by PUC is highly valued: the British ranking also classified the university as the fourth best