The University of Michigan:
An Institution of
Global Learning, Knowledge and Engagement
“The mission of the University of Michigan is to serve the people of Michigan and the world through preeminence in creating, communicating, preserving and applying knowledge, art, and academic values, and in developing leaders and citizens who will challenge the present and enrich the future.”
Since the nineteenth century the U-M has been a national and international model of a diverse and comprehensive public institution of higher learning that supports excellence in research, provides outstanding undergraduate, graduate and professional education, and serves people and organizations in the community, region, state, nation and around the world through its many partnerships and collaborations. It is one of the great public universities of the United States.
The University’s leading position in higher education rests on the outstanding quality of its nineteen schools and colleges, and on its nationally and internationally recognized departments and programs. The “Michigan Difference” reflects the intellectual quality, vitality and passion of its students, its faculty’s major scholarly and creative contributions, and an outstanding staff.
The U-M’s location in the heart of beautiful Ann Arbor offers unrivaled access to the cultural richness of the University and the community, with exceptional museums, galleries, performance venues, entertainment, sports and outdoor spaces.Learn more about the University of Michigan from our about U-M website.Welcome
This web environment provides information about activities the University of Michigan is undertaking toward re-accreditation as an institution of higher education in 2010. With the support of the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association, the University of Michigan makes every effort to plan for and implement a set of activities linked to the re-accreditation process that are both meaningful and useful to the University community and to the many constituencies we serve. This accreditation webportal shows the results of those activities and provides a window in the many facets of the University of Michigan.
Get Adobe Flash Player to see this player.Welcome to the University of Michigan, from President Mary Sue Coleman
Background on Institutional Accreditation
The University of Michigan receives its institutional accreditation status from the Higher Learning Commission (HLC), an independent corporation that holds membership in the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA). The NCA is one of six regional agencies that provide institutional accreditation on a geographical basis as part of a national accreditation structure in which non-governmental agencies accredit institutions of higher education.
The accreditation process has two primary goals—to ensure the quality of institutions of higher education and to promote improvement. Since the Federal Government depends on this accreditation structure to decide which institutions qualify for disbursement of Federal financial aid funds, it is also essential for the University to be formally accredited in this way.
The HLC evaluates institutions based on five criteria, each containing several core components: mission and integrity; preparing for the future; student learning and effective teaching; the acquisition, discovery, and application of knowledge; and engagement and service.
Every ten years, the University files a request with the Higher Learning Commission to be re-accredited, with the next review scheduled for March 15-17, 2010. The five criteria form the basic structure for a Self-Study that the U-M has engaged in. However, the HLC allows complex institutions like the U-M to tailor our re-accreditation activities through a special emphasis study (SES) on a topic that is important to the institution. This SES option allows the university to structure the process in ways that are both meaningful and useful. The leadership of the University has chosen Internationalization as the topic of the SES for activities linked to the 2010 re-accreditation process.A Brief History of the University of Michigan
The University of Michigan was founded in 1817 as one of the first public universities in the nation. It was first established on 1,920 acres of land ceded by the Chippewa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi people "...for a college at Detroit." The school moved from Detroit to Ann Arbor in 1837, when Ann Arbor was only 13 years old. The city had a booming population of 2,000, a courthouse and jail, a bank, four churches and two mills. It had been established in 1824 by two Easterners, John Allen and Elisha Rumsey. The town was named to honor the wives of the founders, Mary Ann Rumsey and Ann Allen, and the natural arbor created by the massive oaks in the area.
Legislative act of 1817 establishes the Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania.
(Bentley Image Bank, Bentley Historical Library)
It took four years to build the necessary facilities for the new campus in Ann Arbor. The buildings consisted of four faculty homes and one classroom-dormitory building. One of the homes is still standing and is now the President's house. Cows owned by the faculty grazed over much of campus. As late as 1845 the campus was covered in the summer with a crop of wheat, grown by a janitor as part of his remuneration. Faculty families harvested peaches from the orchard of the old Rumsey farm, and a wooden fence ran along the edge of campus to keep University cows in and city cows out.
In its first year in Ann Arbor, the University had two professors and seven students. There were more Regents (nineteen) than faculty and students combined. The reorganized University did not have a president, but the faculty elected a presiding officer each year from their own ranks.
(Bentley Historical Library)Freshmen entering in 1841 (women were not admitted to the University until 1870) took admissions examinations in mathematics, geography, Latin, Greek, and other subjects. They also had to furnish "satisfactory testimonials of good moral character." Students paid an initial admissions fee of ten dollars but no tuition. In 1866, Twenty-five years after the move to Ann Arbor, the University of Michigan became the largest university in the country, with 1205 enrolled students.
In 1867, the enrollment reached an all-time high of 1255 students. At that time, the University was comprised of the Medicine Department, with 525 students; the Law Department, with 395 students; and the Literary Department, with 335 students. There were 33 faculty members.
Central Campus around 1930.
(Bentley Image bank)
Today, the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor remains one of the most distinguished universities in the world and a leader in higher education. It is consistently ranked among the nation's top universities, with over 41,000 students and 6000 faculty. The University of Michigan has of one of the largest health care complexes in the world, one of the most extensive university library systems in the country. Over 5,500 undergraduate courses are taught each term in over 200 programs. Undergraduate, graduate and professional students have a choice of 19 schools and colleges, hundreds of majors, over 1000 student organizations, and thousands of concerts, recitals, speakers, symposia, films, readings and sports events each year.
Today's University of Michigan
The University of Michigan-Ann Arbor is located 40 miles west of Detroit, along the beautiful Huron River. It comprises five major areas - Central Campus, East Campus, North Campus, Medical Center, and South Campus - that total 3,070 acres, with 483 major buildings and 1,082 family and single graduate housing units. The university has ~41,000 students in 19 schools and colleges and over 38,000 employees. More than 480,000 U-M alumni are found all over the world.
Google Earth view of today's Central Campus.
Google Map (interactive)
Google Earth (interactive)The students at the University of Michigan come from all 50 states and over 100 foreign countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. Michigan's teaching and research staff is considered one of the top five faculties in the country. University Housing is host to 27% of the student body in 16 residence halls, 392 upper-class undergraduate apartments, and 1,082 family and single graduate units. Ninety-six percent of all first-year students and approximately 36% of all undergraduates live in University Housing. University Housing participates in 10 residential academic programs known as Michigan Learning Communities.
Research expenditures at the U-M in 2007–08 were more than $875 million, making it one of the largest of U.S. universities. Federal agencies provided the largest portion of funds at 69.8%, with the remaining coming from U-M funds (18.1%), industry (4.9%), foundations (2.4%) and others.
The University Library system has 19 libraries, including Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library; the Health Sciences Libraries; Harold T. and Vivian B. Shapiro Undergraduate Library; Shapiro Science Library; and Art, Architecture and Engineering Library. It holds over 8.2 million volumes and over 70,000 serial titles, and is a national leader in the development of digital library resources that currently has over 2.5 million books digitized. Independent and other campus libraries include Law Library, William L. Clements Library of Americana, Michigan Historical Collections/Bentley Historical Library, Kresge Business Administration Library, and Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
The university is host to several museums. The museums that are open to the public are: Detroit Observatory, Exhibit Museum of Natural History (includes a planetarium), Kelsey Museum of Archaeology (reopening Oct. 2009), Museum of Art, Sindecuse Museum of Dentistry, Stearns Collection of Musical Instruments. Research museums that house extensive collections include: Museum of Anthropology, Museum of Paleontology, Museum of Zoology, University Herbarium.
The University of Michigan is dedicated to service in the larger world. Faculty and students conduct hands-on research on a range of critical issues, including health care, energy and the environment, social interventions, education reform and improvement, and many others. Through extending fundamental understanding and by advancing innovations in technology, scientists and engineers contribute to advances that are transforming life and contribute to building the economy of the region, state and the nation. Students take part in community-based service and learning projects. The University collaborates with other universities, colleges and K-12 schools, and provides research and other services for a variety of state, national and private agencies. State contributions include revenue dollars that flow into the University, as well as local goods and services purchased by the University, its employees, students and visitors. The Ann Arbor campus employs approximately 38,000 people, with a total annual payroll and benefits of over $3.2 billion. Thousands of new jobs have been created at the University in the past five years, while research activity has resulted in more than 1,750 invention disclosures and dozens of new start-up companies since 2003. Retail spending, athletics and cultural events generate of hundreds of millions of dollars for the local economy and attract more than 350,000 participants each year.
The University of Michigan's size, complexity and academic strength, its array of resources and opportunities, the quality of its faculty and research institutes, all contribute to the rich environment where students learn and challenge themselves as they come into contact with people, cultures and ideas from all over the world.
