University of Chicago

University of Chicago, private, coeducational institution located in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by American businessman and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, the university opened its doors to students in 1892. William Rainey Harper, who served as the university’s first president, helped establish the university’s reputation as an institution that challenges existing educational traditions and establishes new ones. The University of Chicago created the four-quarter system of study, established the first adult education courses in the liberal arts, and played a leading role in providing equal educational opportunity for women and minorities. As of 1895 women made up 50 percent of the student body, and, until 1940, no other American educational institution had conferred more doctoral degrees to blacks. The university is also widely known for its research, and counts 64 Nobel Prize laureates among its former and current faculty members, researchers, and graduates.

Half of the university’s undergraduate curriculum provides education in the biological, physical, and social sciences; civilizations; foreign languages; humanities and the arts; and mathematics. Known as the Common Core, this required curriculum offers students exposure to fields outside their concentration of study. The Common Core requires two years to complete, and students may take the required courses at any time during their undergraduate education. Courses relating to the student’s chosen concentration and elective courses make up the other half of the student’s education.

In addition to the undergraduate college and the four graduate divisions, the university has six professional schools—business, divinity, law, medicine, public policy studies, and social service administration—and an office of continuing studies (adult education). Graduate students make up about two-thirds of the student body. The degrees of bachelor, master, and doctor are conferred.

Also at the university are the Enrico Fermi Institute for Nuclear Studies; the Yerkes Observatory; and the Oriental Institute, which houses a museum and library devoted to the archaeology of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Assyria, Persia, and Palestine. The university administers Argonne National Laboratory for the United States Department of Energy. The University of Chicago Press, established in 1892 to provide facilities for the publication of scholarly books and journals, now ranks as the largest university press in the United States.