West Virginia University

▪ university, West Virginia, United States

      public, coeducational institution of higher learning, one of the two state universities of West Virginia, U.S.; the other is Marshall University. West Virginia University, a land-grant (land-grant college) college, is located on two campuses in Morgantown. The university was established in 1867 as the Agricultural College of West Virginia, but the agricultural label was dropped the next year when it became West Virginia University.

      It consists of 13 colleges and schools that offer some 160 degree programs, including more than 70 master's and more than 25 doctoral programs. Professional degrees are awarded at the schools of dentistry, law, medicine, and pharmacy. The university conducts research in medicine, coal, and energy; it also operates experimental farms and forests and a geology camp. Among its specialized research centres are the Center for Chinese Business, the Tobacco Research Center, and the Westvaco Natural Resources Center; it has regional campuses at Charleston, Keyser, Montgomery, Parkersburg, and Wheeling. The university also manages several off-campus graduate centres. A personal rapid transit system was installed on the main campus in the 1970s, one of the first such systems in the country. The Wise Library contains a major collection of Appalachian regional culture. Enrollment exceeds 20,000.

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