University of Illinois system

The Chicago Loop as seen from the UIC campus

The largest university in the Chicago area, UIC serves approximately 33,500 students within 16 colleges & schools including Applied Health Sciences, Architecture, Design, and the Arts, Business Administration, Dentistry, Education, Engineering, Graduate, Honors, Liberal Arts & Sciences, Nursing, Pharmacy, Public Health, Social Work, Urban Planning & Public Affairs, Law, and the College of Medicine (largest branch of three branches of the medical school) which is one of the nation's largest medical schools. With annual research expenditures exceeding $341 million, UIC is one of five doctoral research universities in the State of Illinois. Playing a critical role in Illinois healthcare, UIC operates the state's major public medical center and serves as the principal educator of Illinois’ physicians, dentists, pharmacists, nurses and other healthcare professionals. The University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System (a.k.a. "UI Health"), which includes the hospital, clinics, and health science colleges, is a part of UIC.

The modern UIC was formed in 1982 by the consolidation of two U. of I. campuses: the Medical Center campus, which dates back to the 19th century; and the comprehensive Chicago Circle campus, which in 1965 replaced the two-year undergraduate Navy Pier campus designated to educate returning veterans.

University of Illinois Springfield campus

The newest university in the system is University of Illinois at Springfield. It is located in Springfield, Illinois, the state capital of Illinois. When it opened in 1969, it was named Sangamon State University, and was exclusively an upper-level university, serving only upperclassmen and graduate students. In 1995, Sangamon State joined the University of Illinois System and was renamed as the University of Illinois at Springfield. The University of Illinois System then transitioned the school from an upper division university into a full four-year institution with an undergraduate program.

UIS is the smallest university in the University of Illinois System, with an enrollment of nearly 4,200 students. UIS offers more than 50 degree-granting programs. The academic curriculum of the university emphasizes a strong liberal arts core, an array of professional programs, extensive opportunities in experiential education, and a broad engagement in public affairs issues in its academic and community service pursuits. UIS has the lowest student/teacher ratio of all three universities in the U of I System.

Altgeld Hall on the Urbana campus

Illini Union on the Urbana campus

The Urbana–Champaign campus was founded in 1867 as the Illinois Industrial University. It was one of the 37 public land-grant institutions created shortly after Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Act in 1862.[5] The university changed its name to University of Illinois in 1885, and then again to University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in 1982. The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is the largest and most prestigious of the three universities, enrolling more than 52,000 students. UIUC, or more commonly "ILLINOIS," is home to 16 colleges and instructional units including the College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences; College of Applied Health Sciences; Gies College of Business; College of Education; The Grainger College of Engineering; College of Fine and Applied Arts; Division of General Studies; Graduate College; School of Labor and Industrial Relations; College of Law; College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; School of Information Sciences; College of Media; Carle Illinois College of Medicine; School of Social Work; and the College of Veterinary Medicine.

It is also home to the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, NCSA, where Marc Andreessen (of Netscape fame) and others helped develop the Mosaic web browser, the first HTML browser capable of rendering images. In addition, in 1987, NCSA created NCSA Telnet, a program which permitted users access to the supercomputer's resources remotely. The petascale Blue Waters to be completed in 2011 is among the world's fastest supercomputers.

UIUC and its alumni are particularly well known for their contributions to engineering, including inventions such as the LED, plasma screen, and integrated circuit. The library is notable both for being the largest public academic library[6] in the country, with over forty departmental libraries, and for possessing over twelve million volumes.[7] Each year, the library circulates about 1.2 million items and answers about 293,000 reference questions. The university is highly ranked in psychology, engineering, law, library and information science, chemistry, computer science, labor and industrial relations, educational psychology, finance, accounting, business administration, communication, and music.[8] Physics professor John Bardeen won the Nobel Physics Prize twice in his lifetime, an honor no other researcher has received. The school's marching band, named the Marching Illini, also enjoys a superb reputation. Until recently, the symbol of the University's athletic teams was a Native American figure, Chief Illiniwek, which had sparked significant controversy. Chief Illiniwek completed his last performance on February 21, 2007 and has since been retired from performing and as the official symbol of the school.

Currently the university boasts the world's most technologically advanced Computer Science building, Siebel Center, as well as many other world-class research laboratories such as Loomis Laboratory of Physics.

In January 2008, the University of Illinois launched the Global Campus, the university's initiative in online education. The Board of Trustees established the Global Campus in March 2007 to further the land-grant mission to expand educational opportunities for the Illinois community and beyond with distance education technologies.[9] The University of Illinois Global Campus primarily served non-traditional and place-bound students, in order that they may gain the academic and career benefits of a University of Illinois education without the barriers of location and scheduled class times.

In May 2009, the Board of Trustees voted to phase out the Global Campus Initiative. The University of Illinois transitioned the programs developed by the Global Campus to academic units at the corresponding universities.

In 2017 the University of Illinois initiated the Discovery Partners Institute (DPI), a center for tech workforce development and applied R&D in Chicago. Its primary goals are to prepare individuals for careers in Illinois-based tech companies and to bring academic expertise and tech company know-how together within a dedicated building. The DPI is currently located at 200 S. Wacker Dr., with plans for construction within The 78, in Chicago's south loop.