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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 fourth-largest university in Texas, awarding 11,156 degrees in 2023. It has a worldwide alumni base of nearly 200,000.The university consists of fifteen colleges and an interdisciplinary honors college offering some 310-degree programs and enrolls approximately 37,000 undergraduate and 8,600 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 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. 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.