In 1999, a group of professors from Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG) decided to join forces for create an institute with the objective of acting in many ways of education. In the same year, the Novos Horizontes Institute for Higher Education and Research was created, sponsoring the future Novos Horizontes Faculty, which, on April 19, 2001, received an authorization from MEC (Ministério da Educação) to open the Administration and Accounting Sciences courses, starting its 1st academic semester.

In 2004, MEC recognized the undergraduate courses in Administration and Accounting Sciences at Faculdade Novos Horizontes. Along with this achievement, the Faculty celebrated the formation of the first classes and the authorization to open two Technological Undergraduate courses: Commercial Management and Cooperative Management.

Consolidating itself as an excellent higher education institution, in 2005, Faculdade Novos Horizontes was authorized by MEC to offer the Law course, at the same time that it reached a very rare achievement for a Higher Education Institution: in just four years activities, structured the Lato Sensu graduate courses and received a recommendation from CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior) for the Academic Master’s Program in Business Administration. Two years later, in 2007, the first group of Masters in Management finished their course.

In 2017, Faculdade Novos Horizontes, due to its excellent evaluation from MEC, obtained the accreditation as Centro Universitário, changing its name to Centro Universitário Unihorizontes.

Today, the Institution has three campi, in Santo Agostinho, in Barro Preto and in Barreiro, offering 16 Undergraduate courses, 7 of which are Bachelor’s Degrees and 9 of Technological Graduation. The Centro Universitário Unihorizontes also has Postgraduate Lato Sensu courses (MBA and Specialization). Its Master of Business Administration program already has more than 680 Master’s degrees.