For current information, please go to Catalogs Online. It is both the state's land-grant university, with a strong tradition of education and public service, and a major research institution, with scholars of national and international reputation. Paul metropolitan area. With a host of nationally recognized, highly ranked programs, the University's Twin Cities campus provides a world-class setting for lifelong learning.
Top programs require outstanding faculty.
Based upon the most recent survey of the National Research Council, the scholarly quality of the University's faculty ranks among the top 10 public institutions in the nation. Through the University of Minnesota Extension Service, the University is present in each of Minnesota's 87 counties. History The University of Minnesota, which will celebrate its sesquicentennial in 2001, was founded as a preparatory school in 1851, seven years before the territory of Minnesota became a state. Another factor in the school's survival in those tenuous early years was the enactment of the Morrill Act, or Land-Grant Act. Signed into law by President Lincoln in 1862, the act gave each state a grant of land within its borders stipulating that the income from the land was to be used to provide education for people of the state.