Benjamin Franklin, Penn's founder, advocated an educational program that focused as much on practical education for commerce and public service as on the classics and theology. Penn was one of the first academic institutions to follow a multidisciplinary model pioneered by several European universities, concentrating multiple "faculties" (e.g., theology, classics, medicine) into one institution. Penn is today one of the largest private universities in the nation, offering a very broad range of academic departments, an extensive research enterprise and a number of community outreach and public service programs. Penn is particularly well known for its business school, law school and its biomedical teaching and research capabilities.
In FY2009, Penn's academic research programs undertook more than $730 million in research, involving some 3,800 faculty, 1,000 postdoctoral fellows and 5,400 support staff/graduate assistants. Much of the funding is provided by the National Institutes of Health for biomedical research. Penn tops the Ivy League in annual spending, with a projected 2009 budget of $5.542 billion. In 2008, it ranked fifth among U.S. universities in fundraising, bringing in about $475.96 million in private support.
Incorporated as The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn is one of 14 founding members of the Association of American Universities.
History
In 1740, a group of Philadelphians joined together to erect a great preaching hall for the evangelist George Whitefield. Designed and built by Edmund Woolley, it was the largest building in the city and it was also planned to serve as a charity school. The fundraising, however, fell short and although the building was erected, the plans for both a chapel and the charity school were suspended. In the fall of 1749, eager to create a college to educate future generations, Benjamin Franklin circulated a pamphlet titled "Proposals for the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania," his vision for what he called a "Public Academy of Philadelphia."
However, according to Franklin's autobiography, it was in 1743 when he first drew up a proposal for establishing the academy, "thinking the Rev. Richard Peters a fit person to superintend such an institution." Unlike the other three American Colonial colleges that existed at the time — Harvard, William and Mary, and Yale — Franklin's new school would not focus merely on education for the clergy. He advocated an innovative concept of higher education, one which would teach both the ornamental knowledge of the arts and the practical skills necessary for making a living and doing public service. The proposed program of study became the nation's first modern liberal arts curriculum.
Franklin assembled a board of trustees from among the leading citizens of Philadelphia, the first such non-sectarian board in America. At the first meeting of the 24 members of the Board of Trustees (November 13, 1749) the issue of where to locate the school was a prime concern. Although a lot across Sixth Street from Independence Hall was offered without cost by James Logan, its owner, the Trustees realized that the building erected in 1740, which was still vacant, would be an even better site. On February 1, 1750 the new board took over the building and trusts of the old board. In 1751 the Academy, using the great hall at 4th and Arch Streets, took in its first students. A charity school also was opened in accordance with the intentions of the original "New Building" donors, although it lasted only a few years.
For its date of founding, the University uses 1740, the date of "the creation of the earliest of the many educational trusts the University has taken upon itself" (the charity school mentioned above) during its existence.
The institution was known as the College of Philadelphia from 1755 to 1779. In 1779, not trusting then-provost the Rev. William Smith's loyalist tendencies, the revolutionary State Legislature created a University of the State of Pennsylvania. The result was a schism, with Smith continuing to operate an attenuated version of the College of Philadelphia. In 1791 the legislature issued a new charter, merging the two institutions into the University of Pennsylvania with twelve men from each institution on the new board of trustees.These three schools were part of the same institution and were overseen by the same board of Trustees.
Penn has three claims to being the first university in the United States, according to university archive director Mark Frazier Lloyd: the 1765 founding of the first medical school in America made Penn the first institution to offer "undergraduate" and professional education; the 1779 charter made it the first American institution of higher learning to take the name of "University"; and existing colleges were established as seminaries.
After being located in downtown Philadelphia for more than a century, the campus was moved across the Schuylkill River to property purchased from the Blockley Almshouse in West Philadelphia in 1872, where it has since remained in an area now known as University City.
Educational innovations
Penn's educational innovations include: the nation's first medical school in 1765; the first university teaching hospital in 1874; the Wharton School, the world's first collegiate school of business, in 1881; the first American student union building, Houston Hall, in 1896; the country's second school of veterinary medicine; and the home of ENIAC, the world's first electronic, large-scale, general-purpose digital computer in 1946. Penn is also home to the oldest psychology department in North America and is where the American Medical Association was founded.
Campus
Much of Penn's architecture was designed by the Cope & Stewardson firm, whose principal architects combined the Gothic architecture of the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge with the local landscape to establish the Collegiate Gothic style. The present core campus covers over 269 acres (~1 km2) in a contiguous area of West Philadelphia's University City district. All of Penn's schools and most of its research institutes are located on this campus. Recent improvements to the surrounding neighborhood include the opening of several restaurants, a large upscale grocery store, and a movie theater on the western edge of campus.
Academics
Undergraduate schools
The University of Pennsylvania has four undergraduate schools:
Lower Quad in Winter, from Riepe College House
School of Arts and Sciences
School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS)
School of Nursing
Wharton School
Graduate and professional schools
The following schools offer graduate programs:
University of Pennsylvania Dental School
Annenberg School for Communication
Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
Graduate School of Education
Law School
School of Dental Medicine
School of Design (formerly the Graduate School of Fine Arts)
School of Engineering and Applied Science
School of Medicine
School of Nursing
Social Policy and Practice
School of Veterinary Medicine
Wharton School
Joint-degree and interdisciplinary programs
Penn offers specialized joint-degree programs, which award candidates degrees from multiple schools at the University upon completion of graduation criteria of both schools. Undergraduate programs include:
The Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology
The Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business
Nursing and Health Care Management
The Roy and Diana Vagelos Program in Life Sciences and Management
Reputation
U.S. News & World Report ranked Penn #6 (tied with Cal Tech) for undergraduate education in 2009 rankings, fourth in the Ivy League behind Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. Penn was ranked #4 by U.S. News in 2005 and sixth in 2006.
In 2008, the British Times Higher Education magazine ranked Penn 11th in the world and 7th among U.S. universities. In 2007, Penn placed 15th on the Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Academic Ranking of World Universities. The Center for Measuring University Performance ranks Penn in its top cluster of research universities in the nation, tied with Columbia, Harvard, MIT, and Stanford. In 2007, The Washington Monthly ranked Penn 17th overall, and 4th among private institutions (behind Cornell, Stanford, and MIT) on its list of universities' contributions to national service (Research: total research spending; Ph.D.s granted in science and engineering; Community Service: the number of students in ROTC, Peace Corps, etc.; and social mobility: percentage of, and support for, Pell grant recipients).
University of Pennsylvania's undergraduate business program at Wharton has retained its #1 ranking in U.S. News for many years
Undergraduate programs
Penn's arts & science programs are all well-regarded, with many departments ranked amongst the nation's top 10. At the undergraduate level, Wharton, Penn's business school, and Penn's nursing school have maintained their #1, 2 or 3 rankings since U.S. News began reviewing such programs. In the School of Engineering, top departments are bioengineering (typically ranked in the top 5 by U.S. News), mechanical engineering, chemical engineering and nanotechnology. The school is also strong in some areas of computer science and artificial intelligence.
Graduate and professional programs
Penn's graduate schools are among the most distinguished schools in their fields. Penn's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences is generally regarded as one of the top schools in the nation (see 1995 rankings by the National Research Council). A study updated the NRC rankings and adjusted them for faculty size and also factored out reputational surveys (saying that such surveys were lagging indicators of academic quality). That study, "The Rise of American Research Universities: Elites and Challengers in the Postwar Era," ranked Penn's arts, humanities, and sciences departments 7th in the US.
Among its professional schools, the schools of Design, business, communication, dentistry, medicine, nursing, and veterinary medicine rank in the top 5 nationally (see U.S. News, National Research Council, and Planetizen and DesignIntelligence magazines). Penn's Law School is ranked 7th, and its School of Education and School of Social Policy and Practice are ranked in the top 10.
University of Pennsylvania was ranked 11th in the 2008 THES-QS World University Ranking
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