An analysis on relative efficiency for brazilian federal universities, focused on the spatial dependence structure was carried out for the period from 2008 to 2015. The Data Envelopment Analysis was used to measure the efficiency, and the semivariograms analysis was carried out to verify the special dependence. Results show that a spatial dependence for the efficiency of universities was found in the period under study then, leading to the decrease of the dependence over time. The spatial distribution showed great length of the low efficiency in 2009, with enlargement of areas which indicate intermediate level of efficiency in the following years, and concentration of higher efficiency universities in areas clustered within all regions of the country.