The Graduate Program in Systems and Computing at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte began its activities with a master's degree course in 1995. Its main objective is the training of high-level professionals in the field of computing, both for higher education and research. The course resulted from a faculty training process initiated by the Department of Informatics and Applied Mathematics in 1987.

In December 1998, it received the recommendation from CAPES with an initial concept of 3.

In order to improve its rating starting from the triennium 2004, several rules were established, aiming to meet the quality requirements of the Ministry of Education (MEC), such as reducing the maximum completion time and annual accreditation of faculty.

In the first semester of 2007, the Program submitted a project for a Ph.D. in Computer Science to CAPES. The project was approved at the 97th meeting of the Technical and Scientific Committee of CAPES with a rating of 4. The activities of the Ph.D. program began in February 2008. In October 2007, as a result of the evaluation for the triennium 2004-2006, the PPgSC/UFRN received a rating of 4.

For two triennia (2004-2006 and 2007-2009), the Program received a rating of 4, and on both occasions, it was highlighted in the Reports of the Computer Science Area Committee that PPgSC has indices compatible with level 5 programs. The rating of 5 was granted to PPgSC in the triennial evaluation 2010-2012.