UERN was created on September 28, 1968, by Municipal Law No. 20/68. It was born with the name Regional University of Rio Grande do Norte - URRN, linked to the Regional University Foundation of Rio Grande do Norte - FURRN. In the history of its creation appear two other institutions, showing that the idea of ​​a university in Mossoró has origin more remote. The first is the Faculty of Economic Sciences of Mossoró, created in 1943 by the União Caixeiral Society, which already had a technical school of commerce, but actually began to operate only in 1960. The second is FUNCITEC - Foundation for Development of Science and Technology - founded in 1963. With FUNCITEC, the offer of higher education in the city was accelerated. Under his coordination, the Faculty of Social Work of Mossoró was created in 1965 and the Institute of Philosophy, Sciences and Letters of Mossoró, in the same year, with courses in Pedagogy, Literature, History and Social Sciences, and in 1968 , the School of Nursing of Mossoró.