WISCONSIN, UNIVERSITY OF

system of higher education of the state of Wisconsin, comprising 13 four-year institutions and 13 two-year educational centres. The original campus of the University of Wisconsin was founded at Madison as a land-grant college in 1849 and attained a firm foundation after the Morrill Act of 1862. It became fully coeducational in 1874 and gained a reputation as an exemplar of democratic education that was open to all who possess sufficient intellectual endowment. In 1971 the University of Wisconsin at Madison was merged with the Wisconsin State Universities system. The University of Wisconsin thus became one of the largest state university systems in the nation, with an enrollment of about 160,000 students. All of the system's 13 four-year institutions grant bachelor's and master's degrees, while the main campus at Madison and the one at Milwaukee grant doctoral degrees as well. The Madison campus is one of the world's great university research centres. It has a college of letters and science; undergraduate schools of agriculture and life sciences, health professions, business, education, environmental studies, and consumer sciences; and graduate or first-professional schools of law, pharmacy, medicine, veterinary medicine, and nursing.