Academic Programs

AAA

College of ARCHITECTURE + PLANNING

  • Utah’s only professionally accredited architecture and city and metropolitan planning degree programs
  • Utah’s only joint Master of Real Estate Development program, in partnership with the School of Business
  • Leader in digital-design technologies, environmental sustainability, and metropolitan planning
  • Community-based and public-service programs to provide design and planning contributions to Utah communities
  • Partner with the Department of Energy to undertake one of the nation’s most significant net-zero energy building renovations

David Eccles School of BUSINESS

  • Founded at the David Eccles School of Business, the University Venture Fund is the largest student-managed venture firm in the U.S.
  • School of Accounting ranked #22 undergraduate and #25 graduate accounting programs in the U.S. (Public Accounting Report)
  • Executive MBA Program ranks #38 in the U.S. and #88 in the world (Financial Times)
  • Professional MBA Program ranks #45 in the U.S. (U.S. News and World Report) #3 in the U.S. for “Most Family Friendly” business school (The Princeton Review)
  • The University of Utah is ranked #1 in the U.S. for creating startups from university-developed technology (The Association of University Technology Managers)
  • More than 90 companies have been founded on university technology in the past four years. These startup companies have created more than 300 jobs
  • Number 15 in commercialization dollars generated per research dollars (Forbes)
  • In 2009, there were 179 new intellectual-property disclosures (inventions) and 44 first-time university inventors
  • The Lassonde New Venture Development Center bridges the gap between business and engineering by uniting the two in a spirit of synergy, understanding and profit. Students are trained in early stage business development, intellectual property to market analysis and strategy as well as writing business plans. Students then work in teams to evaluate and develop business opportunities for the technologies coming out of labs at the University of Utah.
  • The Foundry, unlike traditional startup incubators, focuses less on producing entrepreneurial ventures than on producing actual entrepreneurs. Through peer-driven coaching and situation-specific curriculum developed by David Eccles School faculty and community business advisors, students launch new businesses.
  • The University Venture Fund is the largest student - managed venture firm in the U.S. Under the motto 'Education through Investment', students raise capital, evaluate deal portfolios, conduct due diligence and invest real money in up-and-coming businesses.
  • The University Venture Fund is the largest student-managed venture firm in the U.S. Under the motto 'Education through Investment', students raise capital, evaluate deal portfolios, conduct due diligence and invest real money in up-and-coming businesses

College of EDUCATION

  • The Teacher Training Program is recognized as a national model. “The Urban Institute for Teacher Education, tiered-instruction techniques are covered in several of the core classes, and they take center stage in one on reading foundations and methods—a nod to RTI’s origins in monitoring the progress of students with reading difficulties.” (Education Week, March 2, 2011)
    Groundbreaking Security Technology - a new detection technology discovery helps root out deception and is the basis of a new company, Credibility Assessment Technologies
  • Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts and Education Complex - the first facility of its kind on a major university campus to combine the resources College of Education and College of Fine Arts to integrate the arts into the preparation of every new teacher and educational leader
  • Nationally ranked as a college as well as graduate degree programs in the Departments of Education, Culture and Society, Educational Leadership and Policy, Special Education, and Educational Psychology
    Utah’s only APA-approved graduate programs in psychology and counseling psychology

College of ENGINEERING

  • The Princeton Review has rated the U’s Entertainment Arts and Engineering (EAE) program #2 in the nation for video game design at the undergraduate level and 6th in the nation for its graduate program.
  • Nationally recognized for its research in Computer Science, Modeling, Visualization, and Graphics
  • Utah’s only biomedical engineering program ranked in the top 25 among all universities nationally
  • Ranked by the American Society of Engineering Education among the top 50 schools in enrollment, degrees, faculty size, and research expenditures
  • Awards nearly 50 percent of the BS, MS and PhD engineering and computer science degrees in Utah’s statewide system
  • Computer Science alum leads Academy Award winning feature film animation studio

College of Fine Arts

  • Officially established in 1948
  • Home to the School of Music, the departments of Art & Art History, Ballet, Film & Media Arts, Modern Dance, and Theater
  • First university to have a Department of Ballet
  • Among first five universities to have a Department of Modern Dance
  • Certificate and minor in Fine Arts Technology, and new certificate in Screendance
  • Entertainment Arts & Engineering Programs, which teach about and build games for the industry, ranked #2 for our undergraduate program and #6 for the graduate by Princeton Review
  • Celebrated alumni include: Bart Cook, Bill Evans, Klea Blackhurst, Isaac Chung, Kenneth H. Washington

College of HEALTH

  • Bachelor’s through Doctorate degrees in Communication Sciences and Disorders; Exercise and Sport Science; Health Promotion and Education; and Parks, Recreation and Tourism
  • Three divisions offer professional Master’s, Doctorate, and/or Clinical Doctorate degree programs: Nutrition, Occupational Therapy, and Physical Therapy
  • Largest undergraduate college at the University of Utah
  • Trains many of Utah’s occupational, physical, and other therapists

HONORS COLLEGE

  • Recently broke ground for the new Donna Garff Marriott Honors Residential Scholars Community (1,800 bed apartment-style residence hall)
  • Host to the University of Utah Early Assurance Program, which guarantees admission to one of the U’s graduate schools upon successful completion of Bachelor’s degree
  • Proven record of placing Honors students at top graduate and medical schools such as Stanford, Mayo Clinic, and NYU

College of HUMANITIES

S. J. Quinney College of LAW

  • Enhanced student experiences outside the classroom, including clinics in technology commercialization, entrepreneurship, venture capital and small business, providing more than 200 community placements for a graduating class of 130
  • Practical, skill-based training and cross-curricular classes prepare students to face the questions of our time, from protection of the environment to achieving innovation in technology and the arts, from raising living standards and increasing access to justice, to addressing the critical unmet needs of low-to-moderate income people and small businesses, to reducing crime and enhancing global justice, security, and peace
  • An exceptional student body, in which 90 percent of our entering students have prior leadership experience, one-sixth have completed advanced degrees in other fields prior to law school, and 62 percent speak at least one foreign language fluently

College of MINES AND EARTH SCIENCES

  • Utah’s only baccalaureate and graduate programs in Geophysics; Atmospheric Sciences; and Geological, Metallurgical and Mining Engineering
  • Utah’s only doctoral program in Geology

College of NURSING

  • Nearly half of the tenured faculty members are Fellows in the distinctive American Academy of Nursing, an exclusive national academy of only 1,300 nurses
  • Nurse Midwifery Program ranked #8 in the country by US News and World Report
  • Only nursing college in Utah to offer both the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) doctoral degrees in Nursing
  • In 2010, received the college’s first PO1 National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to study end-of-life care
  • Ranked #25 in NIH research funding among all nursing schools in the country
  • Undergraduates first-time pass rate consistently over 90 percent for RN licensure examination
  • Interdisciplinary education including Gerontology, Women’s Health, Palliative Care and Informatics
  • Leader in teaching with technology and distance-delivery education at all levels
  • One of the first schools in the country to be designated a national VA Nursing Academy of Nursing in partnership with the Salt Lake City VA Medical Center
  • Selected as one of only nine Hartford Centers of Excellence in Geriatric Nursing Education in the United States



College of PHARMACY

  • Utah’s only nationally ranked program (Pharm.D.) leading to pharmacist licensure
  • Ranked #4 in the nation for research productivity by the National Institutes of Health and has ranked in the top five pharmacy colleges for NIH peer-reviewed research funding for more than 30 years
  • Ranked #16 in the nation for its academic programs by U.S. News & World Report
  • Utah’s only Ph.D. programs in Pharmacology and Toxicology, Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, and Medicinal Chemistry, as well as a master’s program in Pharmacotherapy
  • Home to the Utah Poison Control Center
  • World-class research programs in drug discovery; drug delivery mechanisms; anticonvulsant drug development; pharmacy outcomes research; and other areas
  • In August 2009, the College of Pharmacy broke ground on a $69 million expansion – the L.S. Skaggs Pharmacy Institute, named in honor of L.S. Skaggs – that will bring together pharmacy programs currently scattered in six buildings across campus. The new building will be located next to the current pharmacy building, L.S. Skaggs Hall, which is named after L.S. Skaggs, Sr., founder of the Skaggs store chain that eventually became American Stores Co. Both Skaggs senior and his son, along with the ALSAM Foundation, have been longtime supporters and benefactors of the College of Pharmacy. The respective buildings were named in honor of the two men, who contributed substantially to construction of both buildings.



College of SCIENCE

  • University startup companies and licensees generated a total of $76.6 million in state and local tax revenue during 2009
  • Generates more than $30 million in external research funding each year
  • Biology, chemistry, mathematics and physics graduate programs rank among nation's best in U.S. News & World Report
  • Utah's only astronomy degree program and a world-class telescope facility in southern Utah
  • $14 million David M. Grant NMR Center is a state-of-the-art research facility located on campus
  • More than $240,000 awarded each year in scholarships and financial support to undergraduate and graduate students


Architects' rendering of the new Thatcher Building for Biological and Biophysical Chemistry, partially funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Thatcher family of Salt Lake City, with a planned opening of late 2012.  

College of SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE

  • Utah’s only graduate program in Biological Anthropology
  • Utah’s only Ph.D. program in Anthropology
  • Utah’s only undergraduate major in Behavioral Science and Health
  • Utah’s only Ph.D. program in Geography, only Geographic Information Systems Certificates program and only Professional Geographic Information Systems Education program
  • Utah’s only certificate program in Demography
  • Utah’s only minor in Campaign Management
  • Utah’s only public university with a master’s in Public Policy
  • Utah’s only certificate program in Human Factors
  • Utah’s only Center for Public Policy and Administration

College of SOCIAL WORK

  • Established in 1937, the college is one of the oldest and most respected educational centers for social workers in the Intermountain West
  • BSW Program features onsite and technology-enhanced distance-education programs
  • MSW Program is Utah’s largest social work Master’s program
  • Utah’s only social work Ph.D. program
  • Utah Criminal Justice Center provides research for policy decision-making and programming by local and state entities
  • Only education-based Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment Training Program to license substance-abuse counselors
  • U.S. Children’s Bureau awarded the Social Research Institute the first national grant to train mid-level child welfare leaders from 38 states, the District of Columbia, and the Virgin Islands
  • The first American Indian Social Work Program
  • Annually, BSW and MSW students provide more than 193,000 hours of community service through field training partnerships with nearly 400 public and private organizations

School of MEDICINE

Two-thirds of Utah’s physicians received all or part of their training at the School of Medicine
The George and Dolores Eccles Institute of Human Genetics:
            • Pioneer in genetic research
            • 2007 Nobel Laureate Mario Cappecchi, Ph.D., Utah’s first Nobel Prize Winner (honored for developing a method of gene targeting that revolutionized the study of mammalian biology and disease)