University of Iowa

The University of Iowa (also known as UI, or simply Iowa) is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees. UI is categorized as RU/VH Research University (very high research activity) in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.The university is a group member of the Association of American Universities, the Big Ten Conference, Committee on Institutional Cooperation, and the Universities Research Association. Additionally, UI is considered a Public Ivy according to Howard and Matthew Greene's "The Public Ivies: America's Flagship Public Universities".

The University is home to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. It is one of the largest university-owned teaching hospitals in the nation. Iowa was the first American institution of higher learning to accept creative work for academic credit, and developed the Master of Fine Arts degree.

History

The University of Iowa was founded February 25, 1847 as Iowa's first public institution of higher learning, only 59 days after Iowa became a state. The legal name for the university is the State University of Iowa (SUI) but this became confusing with Iowa State University (ISU), and the Board of Regents approved using "University of Iowa" (UI) for everyday usage in October 1964.

The first faculty offered instruction at the university beginning in March 1855 to students in the Old Mechanics Building, situated where Seashore Hall is now. In September 1855, there were 124 students, of whom forty-one were women. The 1856–57 catalogue listed nine departments offering Ancient Language, Modern Language, Intellectual philosophy, Moral Philosophy, History, Natural History, Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, and Chemistry. The first President was Amos Dean.

The original campus was composed of the Iowa Old Capitol Building and the 10 acres (40,000 m2) (4.046 hectares) of land on which it stood. Following the placing of the cornerstone July 4, 1840, the building housed the Fifth Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Iowa (December 5, 1842) and then became the first capitol of the State of Iowa (December 28, 1846). Until that date it had been the third capitol of the Territory of Iowa. When the capitol of Iowa was moved to Des Moines in 1857, Old Capitol became the first permanent "home" of the University.

In 1855, Iowa became the first public university in the United States to admit men and women on an equal basis. Additionally, the university was the world's first university to accept creative work in theater, writing, music, and art on an equal basis with academic research.

The university was one of the first institutions in America to grant a law degree to a woman (Mary B. Hickey Wilkinson, 1873), to grant a law degree to an African American (G. Alexander Clark, 1879), and to put an African American on a varsity athletic squad (Frank Holbrook, 1895). The university offered its first doctoral degree in 1898.

The university was the first state-university to officially recognize the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Allied Union (1970).

Iowa established the first law school west of the Mississippi River, and was also the first to use television in education (1932) and pioneered the field of standardized testing. Additionally, Iowa was the first Big Ten institution to promote an African American to an administrative vice president’s position (Dr. Phillip Hubbard, promoted in 1966).

Colleges and Schools

College of Liberal Arts & Sciences

School of Art and Art History

School of Music

Tippie College of Business

College of Engineering

College of Pharmacy

College of Education

College of Nursing

Graduate College

College of Law

Carver College of Medicine

College of Dentistry

University of Iowa College of Public Health

University College

The University of Iowa College of Public Health was formed in 1999 when the Department of Preventive Medicine and Environmental Health and the Graduate Program in Hospital and Health Administration were split from the Carver College of Medicine.

Research Institutes

Iowa Institute of Gerontology: The Iowa Institute of Gerontology existed from 1953 until 1971. It was closed in the latter year due to a budget shortfall.

Institute of Agricultural Medicine. The Institute of Agricultural Medicine was established in 1955 with a grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation as an institutte to study rural public health issues.It was later renamed to the Institute of Agricultural Medicine and Occupational Health.

University of Iowa ranked:

192th in the 2011 QS World University Ranking