The graduate course in Geography was originated in 1969 during the university reform. It derived, therefore, from the set of reforms that the Military Government implemented in the educational sector of the country, a product of the Atcon Report and the MEC/USAID Agreements. These reforms meant the implementation, at a national level, of a "Postgraduation system, conceived as selective and aimed at training teachers for higher education and high level researchers".

This reform broke the academic titling process created after the foundation of the University of São Paulo in the 1930s. After the formation of the first groups of students, the academic degree process was instituted. At that time, those with original PhD. theses were registered to defend them even without an advisor (1940s and 1950s).

Still in the 1940s, five professors became Ph.D. candidates, among them: Ary França ("Study on the climate of the São Paulo Basin"); Nice Lecoq Muller ("Sites and sitters"); João Dias da Silveira ("Geographical study of the western counterforts of MantiqueiraRidge") and Renato Silveira Mendes ("Cultural landscapes of the Baixada Fluminense").

In 1946, the Department of Geography was officially created with the first titled teachers with the collaboration of French professors.

The 1950s, marked by the separation between the History and Geography courses, saw three doctoral degrees: Elina de Oliveira Santos under the orientation of João Dias da Silveira, José Ribeiro de Araújo Filho and Aziz Ab'Saber under the advisory of Aroldo de Azevedo.

In the 1960s, three geographers attained the title of PhD.: Pasquale Petrone, oriented by Ary França, Antonio Rocha Penteado oriented by Aroldo de Azevedo and Carlos Augusto Figueiredo Monteiro, oriented by Aziz Ab'Saber. At this time the formation of the faculty was completed, which, together with other professors in the early 1970s, would be responsible for the implementation of the two areas of concentration of Postgraduation in Physical Geography and Human Geography at USP.

New researchers, new worldviews and new methodologies stimulated the geographic science, starting a movement that, in the following decade, would gain the whole country.