The University of Missouri is a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus University of Missouri System. Founded in 1839, it was the first public university west of the Mississippi River. It is a member of the Association of American Universities.
Enrolling more than 30,000 students in 2020, it offers more than 300 degree programs in thirteen major academic divisions. Its well-known Missouri School of Journalism was founded by Walter Williams in 1908 as the world's first journalism school; It publishes a daily newspaper, the Columbia Missourian, and operates an NBC affiliate KOMU. The University of Missouri Research Reactor Center is the world's most powerful university research reactor and is the United States’ sole source of isotopes used in nuclear medicine. The university operates University of Missouri Health Care, running a number of hospitals and clinics in Mid-Missouri.
Its NCAA Division I athletic teams are known as the Missouri Tigers, and compete in the Southeastern Conference. The American tradition of homecoming is claimed to have originated at Missouri.