About the University

Jesse Hall and columns The University of Missouri-Columbia (MU) is a comprehensive, public, land-grant institution and the flagship campus of the University of Missouri system. The only public AAU and Carnegie I institution in Missouri, MU is home to more than 1,700 faculty, 5,000 graduate and professional students, and 18,000 undergraduates. Our students come from all 50 states and more than 100 countries.

MU boasts award-winning research and instruction in biology, medicine and agriculture. With our Colleges of Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources, Arts & Science, and Veterinary Medicine, and School of Medicine, we offer a diversity of programs found at only five other universities in the U.S.

Within the life sciences, interdisciplinary research and instruction are fueled by the virtual absence of departmental boundaries and barriers. The expertise of the MU faculty spans the entire range of subdisciplines in modern biology, with applied research in the School of Medicine; the College of Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources; and the College of Veterinary Medicine neatly complementing basic research in the College of Arts & Science.

Vibrant interdisciplinary degree programs in Conservation Biology, Genetics, Neurosciences, and Nutritional Sciences provide an ideal supportive environment for research and instruction at the intersections of traditional disciplines.

MU is uniquely positioned to both explore the frontiers of knowledge and to provide the most exciting, stimulating and challenging educational experience. In recognition of MU's innovations that have changed the mission and structure of its educational enterprise, MU received the National Science Foundation's inaugural Recognition Award for the Integration of Research into Education.