The University of Michigan is a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Michigan is one of the earliest American research universities and is a founding member of the Association of American Universities. In the fall of 2023, the university enrolled over 52,000 students.
First Annual Report of the university, authored by John Monteith, November 16, 1818
University of Michigan (1855) Jasper Francis Cropsey
Colored elevation of Mason Hall (built in 1841; demolished in 1950), the first building devoted to instruction on the Ann Arbor campus. The design was used as a reference by John F. Rague to build the North Hall (built in 1851) in Madison, Wisconsin, which is a National Historic Landmark.
Alexander J. Davis's original University of Michigan designs featured the Gothic Revival style. Davis himself is generally credited with coining the term "Collegiate Gothic".
A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are "the key sites of knowledge production", along with "intergenerational knowledge transfer and the certification of new knowledge" through the awarding of doctoral degrees, and continue to be "the very center of scientific productivity". They can be public or private, and often have well-known brand names.
Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835) is responsible for the Humboldtian model of higher education.
Nuclear research at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, a research university, in Madison, Wisconsin, United States, May 2005
Switzerland spends 0.76% of GDP on university research funding as of 2017, some 3.8x the ratio of the United States (0.20%). ETH Zurich, founded in 1854, is the leading Swiss research university by its number of scholars and publications.
Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, founded in 1876, is considered the first research university in the United States and as of fiscal year 2020 had been the national leader in annual research and development spending for over four decades.