University of Arizona

The University of Arizona (also referred to as UA, U of A, or Arizona) is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885 (twenty-seven years before the Arizona Territory achieved statehood), and is considered a Public Ivy. The University of Arizona includes the only medical school in Arizona that grants M.D. degrees. In 2006, total enrollment was 36,805 students. The University of Arizona is governed by the Arizona Board of Regents. The mission of the University of Arizona is, "To discover, educate, serve, and inspire."

www.arizona.edu

History

The University of Arizona was approved by the Arizona Territory's Thieving Thirteenth Legislature in 1885. The city of Tucson had hoped to receive the appropriation for the territory's mental hospital, which carried a $100,000 allocation instead of the $25,000 allotted to the territory's only university (Arizona State University was also chartered in 1885, but at the time it was created as Arizona's normal school, and not a university). Tucson's contingent of legislators was delayed in reaching Prescott due to flooding on the Salt River and by the time they arrived back-room deals allocating the most desirable territorial institutions had already been made. Tucson was largely disappointed at receiving what was viewed as an inferior prize. With no parties willing to step forth and provide land for the new institution, the citizens of Tucson prepared to return the money to the Territorial Legislature until two gamblers and a saloon keeper decided to donate the land necessary to build the school. Classes met for the first time in 1891 with 32 students in Old Main, the first building constructed on campus, and still in use to this day.

Campus

The main campus sits on 380 acres (1.5 km2) in central Tucson, about one mile (1.6 km) northeast of downtown. There are 179 buildings on the main campus. Many of the early buildings, including the Arizona State Museum buildings (one of them the 1927 main library) and Centennial Hall, were designed by Roy Place, a prominent Tucson architect. It was Place's use of red brick that set the tone for the red brick facades that are a basic and ubiquitous part of nearly all UA buildings, even those built in recent decades. Indeed, almost every UA building has red brick as a major component of the design, or at the very least, a stylistic accent to harmonize it with the other buildings on campus.

Research

Among the strongest programs at UA are optical sciences, astronomy, astrophysics, planetary sciences, hydrology, Earth Sciences, hydrogeology, linguistics, philosophy, sociology, architecture and landscape architecture, engineering, and anthropology.

Arizona is classified as a Carnegie Foundation "RU/VH: Research Universities (very high research activity)" university (formerly "Research 1" university).

The university receives more than $500 million USD annually in research funding, generating around two thirds of the research dollars in the Arizona university system. 26th highest in the U.S. (including public and private institutions). The university has an endowment of $466.7 million USD as of 2006(2006 NACUBO Endowment Study).

UA is awarded more NASA grants for space exploration than any other university nationally.[18] The UA was recently awarded over $325 million USD for its Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL) to lead NASA's 2007-08 mission to Mars to explore the Martian Arctic. The LPL's work in the Cassini spacecraft orbit around Saturn is larger than that of any other university globally. The UA laboratory designed and operated the atmospheric radiation investigations and imaging on the probe. The UA operates the HiRISE camera, a part of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The Eller College of Management McGuire Entrepreneurship program is currently the number 1 ranked undergraduate program in the country. This ranking was made by The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur Magazine. The Council for Aid to Education ranked the UA 12th among public universities and 24th overall in financial support and gifts. Campaign Arizona, an effort to raise over $1 billion USD for the school, exceeded that goal by $200 million a year earlier than projected.

The National Science Foundation ranks UA 16th among public universities, and 26th among all universities nationwide in research funding. UA receives more NASA grants annually than the next nine top NASA-Jet Propulsion Laboratory-funded universities combined. UA students have been selected as Flinn, Truman, Rhodes, Goldwater, Fulbright, and National Merit scholars. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, UA is among the top 25 producers of Fulbright awards in the U.S.

World Ranking

Academic Ranking of World Universities (Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China): 77th (2008).
Webometrics Ranking of World Universities (Cybermetrics Lab, National Research Council of Spain): 18th (2008).

The G-Factor International University Ranking (Peter Hirst): 15th (2006).
Professional Ranking of World Universities (École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris, France): 35th (2008).

Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities (Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan): 37th (2008).

Global University Ranking by Wuhan University (Wuhan University, China): 43rd (2007).

Library

In 2005, the Association of Research Libraries, in its "Ranked Lists for Institutions for 2005" (the most recent year available), ranked the UA libraries as the 33rd overall university library in North America (out of 113) based on various statistical measures of quality; this is one rank below the library of Duke University, one rank ahead of that of Northwestern University (both these schools are members, along with the UA, of the Association of American Universities). As of 2006, the UA's library system contains nearly five million volumes.

Colleges and Schools

Colleges

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

College of Education

College of Engineering

College of Fine Arts

College of Humanities

College of Law

College of Medicine

College of Nursing

College of Optical Sciences

Outreach College

College of Pharmacy

College of Science

College of Social and Behavioral Sciences

Eller College of Management

Graduate College

Honors College

Mel & Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health

UA South

University College

Schools

Architecture

Art

Dance

Family and Consumer Sciences

Information Resources & Library Science

Landscape Architecture

Media Arts

Music

Public Administration and Policy

Theatre Arts

School of Natural Resources

The University of Arizona was ranked 146th in the 2008 THES-QS World University Ranking