The University of Missouri was founded in Columbia in 1839 as the first publicly supported institution of higher education to be established in the Louisiana Purchase territory. Today, the University is one of the nation’s largest higher education institutions, offering more than 300 degree programs, including 97 undergraduate majors, 96 master’s degrees, 69 doctoral degrees and over 70 certificates.

The mission of the University of Missouri System, as a land-grant university and Missouri’s only public research and doctoral-level institution, is to discover, disseminate, preserve, and apply knowledge. It promotes learning by its students and lifelong learning by Missouri’s citizens, fosters innovation to support economic development, and advances the health, cultural, and social interests of the people of Missouri, the nation, and the world.

The campus of the University of Missouri is 1,262-acre just south of Downtown Columbia and is maintained as a botanical garden. The historical campus is centered on Francis Quadrangle.