UWM offers a uniquely relevant learning experience, educating more Wisconsin residents than any university in the world and recruiting a growing population of international students and faculty.
As the most diverse institution in the University of Wisconsin System, UWM is a learning destination for 30,000 students.
They share the motivation to learn and to excel, and the talent to nurture their ideas and contribute to the global economy. Each student arrives at UWM with a unique perspective and an approach to learning that will be enhanced by a network of support services and learning opportunities available nowhere else in America.
Check out the facts, figures and finances that help present a picture of UWM as an accessible, affordable and powerful institution of higher education.
Something for everyone
World-class faculty sponsor a broad curriculum across 14 schools and colleges, inspired by academia throughout the ages and 21st-century career opportunities and scientific discovery.
Every UWM education takes place in the economic, cultural and entertainment capital of the state: Milwaukee – just five blocks from one of the finest classrooms and freshwater sources anywhere: Lake Michigan and its surrounding beaches, parks, playgrounds and preserves.
First-generation college students arrive here straight from high school, or years later – after starting families, changing careers or serving in the military. We make learning accessible at every age, stage of life and location. Study on campus, online or both.
Research, Recreate, Reveal your Future
The Carnegie Foundation classifies UWM as a university with high research activity, which means scholars from freshman year through post-doctoral fellowship have myriad opportunities to test their ideas and enhance their resumes through research, internship and international learning opportunities.
Learning experiences from Fortune 500 internships to Chinese engineering firms and Icelandic volcanoes to urban classrooms are available to every UWM student. Every one of them is supported by faculty and staff who are experts and trailblazers in their fields.
The living at UWM is as important, and vibrant, as the learning. From 15 NCAA Division I sports to a bustling and affordable university-inspired arts and entertainment scene there’s much to see and do when it’s time for a study break or celebration. Panther Pride is in full force year-round.
In the Business of Innovation Since 1885
Although the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee name and identity have changed over the last 100 years, the university and its predecessor institutions have maintained a commitment to rigorous, relevant and real-world learning and professional development for all students.
Why UWM?
The comforts and connections of a major metropolitan city meet the resources and expertise of a world-class research institution – this is UWM.
Flexible & Convenient
Online, evening, weekend and hybrid classes to accommodate any schedule. UWM educates a large, dedicated and diverse community of students – evenings, weekends, online and on campus. Whatever it takes to help students succeed!
Living, Learning, Leisure
UWM and Milwaukee have it all. Join the UWM family and the Milwaukee community and grow academically and personally – accessing unique, only-at-UWM opportunities to forge lifelong friendships and chart a career path long before crossing the commencement stage.
On Campus
UWM makes its home on a compact campus with big options. Packed into our 104 acres are movie theatres, performance venues, bowling and ping pong, art galleries, free-for-you athletics facility, a planetarium, 15 NCAA Division I sports teams, more than 300 student and professional organizations.
The academic year starts strong with Campus KickOff, a full week of activities designed to help you meet new friends, explore the campus and see all that UWM has to offer. PANTHERFEST caps off the week by welcoming thousands of students and alumni to the Summerfest grounds for big-name entertainment, food and fireworks.
Housing
Four thousand students isn’t a crowd. It’s a community big enough to accommodate every incoming freshman. Five convenient, connected and secure UWM residences welcome sophomore, junior and graduate students, too. Submit your university housing application today. Housing preferences are taken into account during the assignment process, which is run by random lottery.
Around Town
Every city has its own energy. Milwaukee’s vibe is relaxed, mixed with a modern, do-it-your-way kind of attitude. Our home on Milwaukee’s beautiful East Side, blocks from lake Michigan and minutes (by bus) from Downtown, puts students in the center of a thriving and friendly metropolitan area that doubles as a learning laboratory.
Get to it all free and fast. Every semester every student gets a UPASS, good for unlimited free rides on the Milwaukee County Transit System.
Proven Reputation
Our profile, patents and research funding are on the rise. People are talking about UWM.
“The Hollywood Reporter” just named us the No. 20 film school in the world. Our English Department hires, inspires and graduates internationally acclaimed novelists and poets. We’re represented by some of the most successful student athletes in the entire NCAA, including a Top Ten women’s soccer team and a full roster of honor-roll athletes.
We have the only school in the U.S. that is dedicated exclusively to the study of freshwater sciences, whose faculty boast financial support from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health and the World Health Organization. Experts and policymakers are impressed by our international, entrepreneurial faculty and 22,000-mile research facility: Lake Michigan.
We’d like to tell you more about our School of Architecture and Urban Planning. It's the only accredited architecture school in Wisconsin, and it has earned a strong international reputation and influences regional architectural design, policy and preservation. SARUP brings some of the world’s leading design talent to UWM to teach and inspire the next generation of designers and planners – our students.
Our research portfolio has expanded across classrooms and laboratories, and in the boardroom. The UWM Research Foundation builds partnerships and develops patents that bring our faculty’s innovations – desalination, medical technology, self-healing metals, pain-relief drug compounds – to market. Research expenditures top $60 million annually, and there’s a place for even the newest researchers on this campus. Our Office of Undergraduate Research welcomes, mentors and challenges students as early as sophomore year.
We have Museum Studies and Art History programs that develop archivists, curators and anthropologists who accumulate professional experiences and relevant cultural connections as part of their UWM education.
And UWM graduates further distinguish themselves in Southeastern Wisconsin and the world by taking on jobs as public-health professionals, occupational therapists, school psychologists, classroom teachers, nurses and nurse practitioners. Where there is need and/or opportunity, UWM students and graduates don’t hesitate to step in and make a difference.
Real-World Connections
Hundreds of businesses, centers, firms and foundations recruit our students. Our students don’t wait until graduation day to begin their careers. They intern at a Fortune 500 company (or two), learn languages (we offer 20) apply their talents and energy to community change through our Institute for Service Learning (800 students, 120 partner agencies) get to know the world better through one of 300 study-abroad programs. They research and present alongside some of the world’s top scientists as early as sophomore year through our Office of Undergraduate Research.
Inspired and Innovative
Join a community inspired by history, motivated by vision. UWM is much more than buildings and books. Tremendous leadership, collaboration, passion and vision are necessary to propel a nationally ranked academic institution toward greater heights in research, student achievement and community engagement.
Meet Chancellor Michael R. Lovell, the eighth and newly inaugurated chancellor of UWM.
Empowered Alumni Give to UWM
We have more than 140,000 alumni worldwide.
Read a handful of alumni recollections below, or connect directly to the UWM Alumni Association. Show your Panther Pride, and support the research and access missions of UW–Milwaukee by making a gift to UWM.
"In the Department of Film, you believed there were one million ways to tell a story, make a film, and students were encouraged to be open to all of them. And you really felt like the faculty were working for you - pushing you, asking you to think about how this work you're doing affects your life and vice versa."
Thomas Kiedrowski, ’00 BFA Film
—owner, historian and guide of the Andy Warhol Sites Tour; author of “Andy Warhol’s New York City”
“I loved UWM because everything you need is right on campus and there are so many diverse departments. All I want is to continue to learn more and educate myself. These resources help me.”
Andrew Hargarten ’10 BS Nursing
—paramedic and firefighter, Milwaukee Fire Department
“Working with such brilliant people, people who have been in this industry for 30 years, reminds me of how lucky I was at UWM. A lot of engineering friends, study groups and student organizations, professional relationships and work experience got me exactly where I wanted to be when I graduated from college.”
Heidi Dugan, ’09 BS Materials Engineering
—engineer in the Corrosion Group at Boeing Co., Seattle
“UWM is really what you make of it. You’re in control of what happens here.”
Tameka Bradford ’10 BS Community Education
—admissions specialist, master’s student in mental health counseling, Northcentral University
“I’ve loved meeting all the nontraditional students from unique backgrounds. I’ve not only learned from my teachers, but from the other students. Learning a second language – like I learned Chinese at UWM – really expands your worldview, linguistically and culturally.”
Jacob Gill ’11 BA Global Studies
—master’s student at the School for Chinese Linguists, Taiwan
"I pulled two all-nighters back-to-back, putting together my sophomore architecture portfolio, but once it was done, I didn’t have any doubts that it would be accepted. The camaraderie between the architecture faculty and students gave us a real sense of community, and the pulls you through the stressful times and gets you ready for the rigors of professional firms."
Karlton Lattimore ’11 BS Architecture
—master’s student in the College of Human Ecology, Cornell University
“My master’s thesis at UWM allowed me to marry the biology, water and public health aspects of science that all interested me. With this background, I landed an internship with the World Health Organization in Geneva, job offers and acceptance into a PhD program in public health.”
Katie Gajeski ’11 MS Biological Sciences
“I felt like I was a kid in a candy store looking at the course offerings in the School of Information Studies. The networking side of computers, plus Web design work, made that program music to my ears.”
Robb Krasnow ’10 BS Information Science & Technology
—master’s student, Rochester Institute of Technology
By the Numbers
Every statistic tells a story. Check out some of UWM's more impressive numbers – from degrees and programs offered to the number of international students enrolled here (1,000 students representing 80 nations in 2012).
One number that never stands still for long: campus acreage. UWM is expanding its footprint, with new laboratories and business incubator sites being added in 2012-14. Prairie, bog and hibernacular research spaces carry the UWM name elsewhere in Southeastern Wisconsin. Architectural gems, laboratories, a nature preserve and myriad recreational and study spaces are located throughout our 104-acre main campus on Milwaukee's East Side.
Another favorite number: five. As in, UWM sits just five blocks from Lake Michigan, an ecological and recreational treasure that boosts the productivity and livability of southeastern Wisconsin in scenic, strategic ways.
Our Campus
The university’s 104-acre main campus includes the recently acquired Columbia Hospital property. Also included on the main campus is the 18.8-acre Downer Woods preserve and a 2.6-acre recreational area. Approximately 50 buildings support academic, administrative, athletic and student-life operations at UWM.
University properties in Greater Milwaukee include inner-harbor acreage on the city’s South Side, where expansion and renovation plans have been approved for the university’s School of Freshwater Sciences, and to house business accelerator sites for university-industry partnerships.
Majors and degree programs
- 94 bachelor’s degree programs
- 53 master’s degree programs
- 32 doctoral degree programs
- 1 specialist degree program (Educational Specialist in School Psychology)
Faculty and staff
- Faculty/instructional staff: 1,623
- Academic staff: 1,007
- Classified staff: 1,007
- TOTAL: 3,637
Enrollment figures 2011-12
UWM enrolls more Wisconsin students than any other university in the state.
- Total: 29,768
- Undergraduate: 24,678
- Graduate: 5,090
- Women: 15,595
- Men: 14,134
- From Wisconsin: 26,676
- Students come from all 50 states and the District of Columbia
- 1,015 international students representing 80 countries
Student profile 2011-12
- The 2011 freshman class is the most diverse class of first-year students ever. More than 23 percent of new freshmen are from underrepresented groups. Within the full student body, students of color from targeted and non-targeted groups comprise more than 21 percent of the UWM student body.
- 25 percent of students are enrolled in at least one online course.
- 5 percent of students are enrolled in online classes on a full-time basis.
- More than 1,200 enrolled veterans and dependents make UWM home to Wisconsin's largest population of student-veterans.
- From fall 2001 to fall 2011, overall UWM enrollment grew more than 25 percent, from 23,828 to 29,768. Degrees granted annually by the university have grown at a higher pace – 39 percent – during the decade. For the first time in its history, UWM is awarding more than 5,300 academic degrees annually.
Undergraduate Tuition & Fees 2012-13
- Wisconsin residents: $9,186 per year
- Minnesota residents: $12,815 per year
- All other states: $18,915 per year
Graduate Tuition & Fees 2012-13
- Wisconsin residents: $11,482 per year
- Minnesota residents: $15,665 per year
- All other non-residents: $23,947 per year
Operating budget 2011-12
- State appropriations: $112,953,800 (16.7%)
- Operations receipts: $289,746,200 (42.9%)
- Federal aid, grants & contracts: $251,921,700 (37.3%)
- Gift fund income: $21,333,400 (3.2%)
- TOTAL: $675,955,100
Research expenditures
At UWM, research expenditures have increased from $23 million in 2000-2001 to $59 million in 2011-12 – an increase of 150 percent. Growing research expenditures has been a focal point of UWM during the past decade, and faculty and staff across campus have stepped forward to build our research infrastructure. Major universities are measured by their research expenditures.
Alumni
UWM has more than 141,000 living alumni. In a recent survey of alumni who earned bachelor’s degrees from UWM in 2003-04 and 2004-05:
- 96% were satisfied with their educational experience at UWM.
- 92% were Wisconsin residents (the highest percentage of all 13 four-year universities).