The University

The innovation, creativity, quality teaching and uplifting service underway at the University of Kentucky touch the lives of people throughout the Commonwealth, the country and the world. Our mission to advance Kentucky, outlined in our strategic plan - the UK PURPOSE - calls us to ground-breaking research, community outreach, intellectually rigorous education and technological advances that contribute to the betterment of the Commonwealth while also fostering a cultural quality of life through our museums, libraries and special events.

Founded in 1865 as a land-grant institution adjacent to downtown Lexington, UK is nestled in the scenic heart of the beautiful Bluegrass region of Kentucky. From its early beginnings, with only 190 students and 10 professors, UK’s campus now covers nearly 900 acres and is home to more than 32,000 students and approximately 25,000 employees, including nearly 3,000 full-time faculty, and operates an annual budget of $6.8 billion. UK is one of eight universities in the United States that has colleges of agriculture, engineering, medicine and pharmacy on a single campus, leading to groundbreaking discoveries and unique interdisciplinary collaboration. The state’s flagship university consists of 16 academic and professional, degree-granting colleges where students can choose from more than 200 majors and degree programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The colleges include the Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment; Arts and Sciences; the Gatton College of Business and Economics; Communication and Information; Dentistry; Design; Education; the Stanley and Karen Pigman College of Engineering; Fine Arts; Health Sciences; the J. David Rosenberg College of Law; Medicine; Nursing; Pharmacy; Public Health; and Social Work. The Lewis Honors College provides an immersive liberal arts education with the resources of a leading research university. The Graduate School prepares the next generation of business, industry and academic leaders. Supporting and emboldening our scholarly community is a comprehensive research library system made up of nine facilities, including the world-class William T. Young Library.

The student body is diverse, representing more than 100 countries, every state in the nation and all 120 Kentucky counties. The university continues to attract the best and brightest from Kentucky and beyond. Several hundred students participated in the Kentucky Governor’s Scholars Program or the Governor’s School for the Arts. UK students compete successfully for prestigious scholarships and awards, such as Fulbright, Astronaut, Truman, Goldwater, Marshall, Udall, Rhodes and Gates Cambridge. UK has had 14 Truman Scholars and 6 Marshall Scholars. Its third Gates Cambridge Scholar was named in 2022-23 and 10th Rhodes Scholar named in 2018-19. Additionally, UK has celebrated 26 Astronaut Scholars, as well as 30 Goldwater Scholars since 1995. In 2023, 15 UK students and alumni were awarded the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. Since the inception of the Fulbright Program in 1946, 288 UK faculty and staff and 135 UK students have been awarded Fulbright grants in support of research, teaching and studies in more than 70 countries around the world.

By putting students first; taking care of our people; inspiring ingenuity; ensuring greater trust, transparency and accountability; and bringing together many people, one community, the University of Kentucky continues to equip the next generation of leaders who will impact our world for the better.

The University

The University of Kentucky has a broad range of resources centered on a single campus in the heart of the Bluegrass. Our wide array of programs allows us to excel in multidisciplinary studies and fosters an environment of cooperative engagement across all colleges, programs and research endeavors. Because of the lives we touch and teach, we remain anchored in our mission to Kentucky - to educate, innovate, heal and serve. To be sure, our complex, multi-faceted mission looks different today in many ways than it did in 1865. However, our sense of responsibility to our communities on campus and across the region is resolute. The mission has evolved and grown. The vision of service to our Commonwealth and the world beyond remains the same. They remain our compass - the soul of the University of Kentucky.

The University of Kentucky has a broad range of resources centered on a single campus in the heart of the Bluegrass. Our wide array of programs allows us to excel in multidisciplinary studies and fosters an environment of cooperative engagement across all colleges, programs and research endeavors. Because of the lives we touch and teach, we remain anchored in our mission to Kentucky - to educate, innovate, heal and serve. To be sure, our complex, multi-faceted mission looks different today in many ways than it did in 1865. However, our sense of responsibility to our communities on campus and across the region is resolute. The mission has evolved and grown. The vision of service to our Commonwealth and the world beyond remains the same. They remain our compass - the soul of the University of Kentucky.

UK’s campus offers facilities that advance the scholarship of its students and the research endeavors of its faculty. Indeed, the institution has expended more than $4.4 billion in a little more than a decade on facilities that enhance living, learning, scholarship and athletics across the institution.

At the heart of the campus is the iconic William T. Young Library, the most visible of several facilities that comprise UK Libraries. The stately architecture features a 93-foot-tall rotunda and a dramatic five-floor atrium allowing natural light to pour in from skylights. UK Libraries is among the world’s leading research libraries with a broad scope of advanced technology that offers students, faculty, staff and Kentucky residents special access to current information online, in addition to printed resources.

Over the last several years, the University of Kentucky has engaged in an effort to revitalize student living and learning spaces. UK’s public/private partnership with EdR/Greystar has yielded more than 6,850 modern beds and more than 200 active learning spaces in 14 buildings - a more than $450 million investment made by our partners.

• Johnson Hall and Donovan Hall opened in fall 2013;
• Chellgren Hall, Woodland Glen II, Haggin Hall, Jewell Hall and Blazer Hall opened in fall 2014;
• Woodland Glen III, IV and V opened in fall 2015;
• Holmes Hall and Boyd Hall opened in fall 2016; and
• University Flats and Lewis Hall opened in fall 2017.

Research at the University of Kentucky is a dynamic enterprise encompassing traditional scholarship, the humanities, health care and emerging scientific fields and technologies. The scope and scale of UK’s research enterprise results in more than $873 million annually in economic impact and more than 4,600 jobs across the state.

With more than 70 research centers and institutes, UK researchers are discovering new knowledge; providing a rich training ground for current students and the next generation of researchers; advancing the economic growth of the Commonwealth of Kentucky; and exploring art and creativity of diverse cultures.

UK is one of the few universities in the country with a research and teaching campus and a medical center in one central location. That proximity, and the willingness of our scientists and scholars to work together across disciplines, make innovation possible.

Starting July 1, 2023, UK Research will fund a new Materials Science Research Priority Area, the eighth designated Research Priority Area (RPA) for the university. From medicine and manufacturing to automotive and aerospace applications, materials are vital to the future of Kentucky’s economy. Materials science will join other RPAs in cancer; cardiovascular diseases; diabetes and obesity; diversity and inclusion; energy; neuroscience; and substance use disorders. These areas were selected based on local relevance, existing funding strength, sustainability and disciplinary scholarly diversity. The initiative began in 2018 to seed innovative ideas and bring researchers together to compete for federal funding. It has seen successful returns on investment, with compound annual growth rates in grants and contracts for research in these RPAs ranging from 1.5 percent to 14.2 percent since 2015.

UK is one of 29 institutions in the country with the trifecta of research designations for excellence in cancer, aging and translational science.

Among the brightest examples of UK’s investment in transformative research is the Markey Cancer Center, one of more than 70 National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated cancer centers in the nation and the only one in Kentucky. Markey’s robust research and clinical enterprise is the cornerstone of our commitment to improving the health and welfare of our state, which is burdened by the nation’s highest rate of cancer deaths per 100,000 people.

In FY22, the UK Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS) received a $23.5 million, four-year award from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This is the third time the CCTS has successfully competed for the prestigious Clinical and Translational Award (CTSA), with continuous funding since 2011 totaling $65.4 million. The CCTS powers UK’s work to take basic science discoveries to the clinic to advance the most promising new treatments and provide leading-edge care to Kentucky patients. Nearly 200 faculty and staff across 12 departments and colleges are part of CCTS.

In FY22, the UK Sanders-Brown Center on Aging received a $14.5 million, five-year award for its Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) program from the National Institute on Aging (NIA), a division of the NIH. Initially funded in 1985, UK was one of the original 10 ADRCs in the United States and with more than 35 years of continuous funding has established itself as a research leader in Alzheimer’s disease and associated neurodegenerative disorders. By investigating the function of tau, inflammation and astrocytes in Alzheimer’s, Sanders-Brown scientists are on the front line of dementia prevention and care research.

In 1957, UK established what has become one of the nation’s finest academic medical centers. UK HealthCare is the clinical enterprise and academic medical center of the University of Kentucky and includes 1,029 beds at three hospitals - UK Chandler Hospital which includes a level 1-trauma center, transplant center and NIH-designated cancer center; UK Good Samaritan Hospital - an acute care facility; and Kentucky Children’s Hospital. In addition, UK HealthCare is comprised of more than 12,000 people - physicians, nurses, pharmacists and other health care professionals - all dedicated to providing the most advanced, most effective care available.  On a monthly basis in 2022, UK HealthCare hospitals averaged 3,496 discharges and 3,234 surgeries, 10,169 emergency department visits and 104,756 hospital-based outpatient clinic visits.

For the past eight years, UK HealthCare has been ranked No. 1 in Kentucky in the U.S. News & World Report’s Best Hospitals Rankings. UK’s Markey Cancer Center, Kentucky’s only National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center, has been ranked in the Top 50 nationally for cancer care for the seventh consecutive year.  Additionally, Kentucky Children’s Hospital has been recognized as a 2023-24 Best Children’s Hospital and the Joint Pediatric and Congenital Heart Program, a collaboration between Cincinnati Children’s and Kentucky Children’s Hospital, ranked seventh in pediatric cardiology & heart surgery.

Also, in December 2022, Ashland-based King’s Daughters (KD), the largest employer in northeastern Kentucky, officially became part of UK - a move that will create greater access to high-quality care for more Kentuckians. King’s Daughters serves a 16-county region across Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia and has more than 5,000 employees at two acute-care hospitals; more than 50 ambulatory centers and practice locations; a long-term care facility; medical transport company and six urgent care centers.

The university has demonstrated its commitment to partnerships with businesses and other institutions of higher learning. As a $6.8 billion university, UK is one of the region’s largest employers and is fostering better relationships with the community by directly engaging businesses, local government and civic service organizations. Additionally, the university hired a supplier diversity manager as part of a long-term commitment to bolster and strengthen ties to minority-owned businesses and vendors.

UK’s reach extends far beyond the borders of Fayette County. As an anchor institution for the Bluegrass Economic Advanced Movement, UK’s Stanley and Karen College of Engineering and graduates of our institution are a critical component of growing an advanced manufacturing economy in Central Kentucky. Thanks to a unique partnership between UK’s Stanley and Karen Pigman College of Engineering and the Bluegrass Community and Technical College, students can earn an Associate of Applied Science and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering Technology. The college’s Department of Engineering Technology, made possible in large part to a $2.25 million gift from Toyota, offers two four-year undergraduate degrees in lean systems engineering technology and computer engineering technology. Graduates of these pathways will be trained in the latest technologies and equipped with the practical skills necessary for thriving in advanced technology industries.

UK is also part of the Bluegrass Higher Education Consortium, a collection of postsecondary institutions working together to advance the cause of learning. And UK works collaboratively with other institutions to establish joint degree programs and improve the pipeline of students transferring between colleges and universities.

UK’s agenda remains committed to accelerating the university’s academic excellence in all areas and gaining worldwide recognition for its outstanding academic programs, its commitment to students, its investment in pioneering research and discovery, its success in building a diverse community and its engagement with the larger society. It’s all part of the university’s mission as a 21st century flagship and land-grant research university. From its Nobel Laureates to cutting-edge work in addressing health disparities, and from the artistic wonders that stir souls to the scientific creativity that inspires minds, UK seeks a brighter future through the contributions of our faculty, staff, students and alumni. We are the University of Kentucky.