Maryland, University of

▪ university system, Maryland, United States

in full  University System of Maryland, 

      state university system consisting of 11 coeducational campuses in eight cities. In 1970 the University of Maryland comprised five campuses. The University of Maryland System was created in 1988 when a merger formed the current 11-campus system. Renamed the University System of Maryland in 1997, it is an academic and research institute with land-grant (land-grant college) and sea-grant status. The main campus, University of Maryland, College Park, provides comprehensive undergraduate and graduate programs and has research facilities that include seven libraries. Total enrollment at the main campus is about 33,000.

      An adjacent campus, University College, provides education at more than 25 off-campus locations in the region and at more than 140 locations in 29 countries, including a four-year residential campus in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Ger. Also within the state system are the University of Maryland, Baltimore; Bowie State University; Towson University; the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in Princess Anne; Frostburg State University; Coppin State College in Baltimore; the University of Baltimore; Salisbury State University; and the University of Maryland Baltimore County in Baltimore. The state system also includes the research and public-service components of the Agricultural Experiment Station, the Cooperative Extension Service, the Center for Environmental Science, and the Maryland Biotechnology Institute, which administers the Maryland Sea Grant College.

      The University of Maryland, Baltimore, was founded in 1807 as the College of Medicine of Maryland, the fifth medical school in the United States. Its Health Sciences Library is outstanding. The University of Maryland, College Park, was created in 1856 by Charles Benedict Calvert as Maryland Agricultural College, which became a land-grant institution in 1865 under the provisions of the Morrill Act of 1862. Women were first admitted in 1912, and the school was racially integrated in 1950–51, following a highly publicized legal battle. The campuses at College Park and Baltimore merged to form the University of Maryland in 1920.

      Originally created as normal (teacher-training) schools were Bowie State (founded 1865), Towson (1866), Frostburg State (1898), Coppin State (1900), and Salisbury State (1925). Bowie State, Coppin State, and Eastern Shore (1886) were initially established as schools for blacks. The University of Baltimore (1925) is an upper-division school that does not admit freshman or sophomore students. University of Maryland Baltimore County (1966) has an enrollment of about 10,000 students.

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