THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA

The University of North Carolina is a single, multi-campus university comprising all the state’s public educational institutions that grant baccalaureate degrees. It was chartered in 1789 and is the oldest public university in the nation. According to the UNC website, it was the only public university in the United States to graduate students in the eighteenth century. It currently enrolls approximately 190,000 students and the projected Fall 2008 enrollment is greater than 199,500. The 16 UNC constituent institutions house:

• two medical schools and a teaching hospital;
• a veterinary school;
• a dental school;
• a school of pharmacy;
• a specialized institution for performing artists;
• a school of journalism and mass communication;
• two law schools;
• three schools of engineering;
• ten nursing programs;
• fifteen schools of education;
• fifteen schools or programs in business or management;
• two land grant institutions; and
• a broad array of liberal arts programs.

Other campus-centered activities under the UNC umbrella include the nine Area Health Education Centers and cooperative extension and research services that reach all 100 counties in North Carolina. The University also operates the UNC Center for Public Television with its 11 station statewide TV network.

The North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, a residential high school in Durham for gifted students from across the state, is an affiliated school of the University. The North Carolina School of the Arts also houses a residential program for talented high-school students.

 

UNC President, Erskine Bowles, initiated this effort to examine how all of the campuses within the UNC System are responding to the most pressing needs facing the state now and over the next 20 years.