The University of Houston (UH, UofH, or Houston) is a public research university in Houston, Texas. It was established in 1927 as Houston Junior College, one of multiple junior college institutions formed in the first decades of the 20th century. In 1934, HJC was restructured as a four-year degree-granting institution and renamed as the University of Houston. Today, Houston is the university in Texas, awarding nearly 11,000 degrees annually adding to its worldwide alumni base of approximately 310,000.
The university consists of fifteen colleges and an interdisciplinary honors college offering some 310-degree programs and enrolls approximately 37,000 undergraduate and 10,000 graduate students.
Houston has nine professional schools: the Hines College of Architecture, Bauer College of Business, Hilton College of Global Hospitality, Law Center, College of Medicine, College of Nursing, College of Optometry, College of Pharmacy, College of Social Work, and the Hobby School of Public Affairs. The university's campus, which is primarily in southeast Houston, spans , with the inclusion of its two instructional sites located in Sugar Land and Katy. The university is also the founding campus of the University of Houston System. Undergraduate admissions to the university is categorized in the second quintile, "more selective". Nearly 88% of the student body are from the state of Texas and 9% are international students representing over 130 nations.
The university is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and spends approximately $240 million annually in research. The university operates more than 35 research centers and institutes on campus in areas such as superconductivity, space commercialization and exploration, biomedical sciences and engineering, energy and natural resources, and artificial intelligence. The economic impact of the university contributes over $6.4 billion annually to the Texas economy, while generating about 62,000 jobs.
The University of Houston hosts a variety of theatrical performances, concerts, lectures, and events. It has more than 500 student organizations and 17 intercollegiate sports teams. Annual UH events and traditions include The Cat's Back, Homecoming, and Frontier Fiesta. The university's varsity athletic teams, known as the Houston Cougars, are members of the Big 12 Conference and compete in the NCAA Division I in all sports. In 2021, the university received and accepted an invitation to join the Big 12 Conference. The football team regularly makes bowl game appearances, and the men's basketball team has made 23 appearances in the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament—including six Elite Eight and Final Four appearances. The men's golf team has won 16 national championships—the most in NCAA history. In 2022, UH's men's track and field team earned its seventh Indoor Conference Championship title, and its swimming and diving team defended its American Athletic Conference title for the sixth straight season.
History
Founding
The University of Houston began as Houston Junior College (HJC). On March 7, 1927, trustees of the Board of Education of the Houston Independent School District (HISD) unanimously signed a charter founding the junior college. The junior college was operated and administered by HISD.
HJC was originally located on the San Jacinto High School campus and offered only night courses to train future teachers.
Its first class began June 5, 1927, with an enrollment of 232 students and 12 faculty recruited from Rice University, the University of Texas and Sam Houston State Teacher's College. The first session accepted no freshman students, and its purpose was to mainly educate future teachers about the college. In the fall semester, HJC opened enrolled to high school students. By then, the college had 230 students and eight faculty members holding evening classes at San Jacinto High School and day classes in area churches.
HJC's first president was Edison Ellsworth Oberholtzer, who was the dominant force in establishing the junior college.
University beginnings
The junior college became eligible to become a university in October 1933 when the governor of Texas, Miriam A. Ferguson, signed House Bill 194 into law. On September 11, 1933, Houston's Board of Education adopted a resolution to make HJC a four-year institution and changing its name to the University of Houston. Unanimously approved by the board, the formal charter of UH was passed April 30, 1934.