University of Houston

The University of Houston ( ; HEW-stən) is a public research university in Houston, Texas, United States. It was established in 1927 as Houston Junior College, a coeducational institution and one of multiple junior colleges formed in the first decades of the 20th century. In 1934, HJC was restructured as a four-year degree-granting institution and renamed University of Houston. In 1977, it became the founding member of the University of Houston System. Today, Houston is the third-largest university in Texas, awarding 11,773 degrees for the 2024–2025 academic year. As of 2024, it has a worldwide alumni base of 331,672. The university consists of fifteen colleges and an interdisciplinary honors college offering 310 degree programs and enrolls approximately 40,000 undergraduate and 9,000 graduate students. The university's campus, which is primarily in southeast Houston, spans 894 acres (3.62 km2), 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. 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 university has more than 500 student organizations and 17 intercollegiate sports teams. Its varsity athletic teams, known as the Houston Cougars, are members of the Big 12 Conference (which it joined in 2021) and compete in the NCAA Division I in all sports. The football team regularly makes bowl game appearances and the men's basketball team has made 26 appearances in the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, including eight 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.