University of Wisconsin-Madison

                              

A public, land-grant university, UW-Madison offers a wide spectrum of liberal arts studies, professional programs, and student activities. The school is frequently called a "Public Ivy," and in 2007 U.S. News & World Report ranked UW as the eighth best public university in the United States. It has also been ranked as the 16th best university in 2006 in terms of volume scientific publications according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities. UW-Madison ranked second in a list of top national research universities for the 2006 fiscal year, generating more than $900 million in research, according to statistics by the National Science Foundation.

From 1848 to 1956, the university was part of the higher education system in Wisconsin that included the current Madison campus, ten freshman-sophomore centers and the state-wide extensions. Between 1956–1971, it was part of the then University of Wisconsin. It became a part of the University of Wisconsin System in 1971.

Wisconsin's NCAA Division I athletic teams are called the Badgers. They compete in the Big Ten Conference in all sports except ice hockey, where they participate in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. Wisconsin's football team won the Rose Bowl in 1994, 1999, and 2000. Its men's basketball team won the NCAA National Championship in 1941, and made it to the Final Four in 2000. Both the men's and women's hockey teams won the national championship in 2006.

History

In achievement and prestige, the University of Wisconsin–Madison has long been recognized as one of America’s great universities. A public, land-grant institution, UW–Madison offers a complete spectrum of liberal arts studies, professional programs and student activities. Many of its programs are hailed as world leaders in instruction, research and public service.

Origins

The university traces its roots to a clause in the Wisconsin Constitution, which decreed that the state should have a prominent public university. In 1848, Nelson Dewey, Wisconsin’s first governor, signed the act that formally created the university, and its first class, with 17 students, met in a Madison school building on February 5, 1849.

From those humble beginnings, the university has grown into a large, diverse community, with about 40,000 students enrolled each year. These students represent every state in the nation, as well as countries from around the globe, making for a truly international population.

Mission

UW–Madison is the oldest and largest campus in the University of Wisconsin System, a statewide network of 13 comprehensive universities, 13 freshman-sophomore transfer colleges and an extension service. One of two doctorate-granting universities in the system, UW–Madison’s specific mission is to provide “a learning environment in which faculty, staff and students can discover, examine critically, preserve and transmit the knowledge, wisdom and values that will help insure the survival of this and future generations and improve the quality of life for all.”

The university achieves these ends through innovative programs of research, teaching and public service. Throughout its history, UW–Madison has sought to bring the power of learning into the daily lives of its students through innovations such as residential learning communities and service-learning opportunities. Students also participate freely in research, which has led to life-improving inventions ranging from more fuel-efficient engines to cutting-edge genetic therapies.

The Wisconsin Idea

Students, faculty and staff are motivated by a tradition known as the “Wisconsin Idea,” first started by UW President Charles Van Hise in 1904, when he declared that he would “never be content until the beneficent influence of the university [is] available to every home in the state.” The Wisconsin Idea permeates the university’s work and helps forge close working relationships among university faculty and students, and the state’s industries and government.

Academics

University of Wisconsin–Madison, the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System, is divided into twenty associated colleges and schools. In addition to traditional undergraduate and graduate divisions in business, engineering, education, agriculture, and letters and sciences, the university also maintains professional schools in law, medicine, veterinary medicine, environmental studies, public affairs, journalism, library science and pharmacy.

The largest university college, the College of Letters and Science, enrolls approximately half of the undergraduate student body and is made up of thirty-nine departments and five professional schoolsthat instruct students and carry out research in a wide variety of fields such as biology, astronomy, history, geography, linguistics, and economics.

Agricultural and Life Sciences, College of

Business, Wisconsin School of

Continuing Studies, Division of

Education, School of

Engineering, College of

Environmental Studies, Gaylord Nelson Institute for

Graduate School

Human Ecology, School of