public, coeducational institution of higher learning with a main campus in Lawrence, Kan., U.S. Its Medical Center campus is in Kansas City, and there is also a medical campus in Wichita. The university includes the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and 12 schools offering study in such areas as law, engineering, business, architecture, and pharmacy. The Medical Center consists of the Schools of Allied Health, Medicine, and Nursing. The university offers a variety of undergraduate, graduate, and professional degree programs. Research facilities include the Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies, the Bureau of Child Research, the Center for Environmental Health, the Tertiary Oil Recovery Project, and a space technology centre. Total enrollment is approximately 28,000.

The university was first chartered in 1859 as Lawrence University. After Kansas became a state, the legislature authorized the university in 1864, with classes beginning in 1866. Instruction in law started in 1878 and in 1893 the School of Law was founded. Hospital teaching and provision for awarding degrees in medicine began in 1905; by 1924 the expanded school was moved to the Medical Center. Notable alumni include Alfred Landon, the 1936 Republican presidential candidate, journalist William Allen White, biologist Paul R. Ehrlich, and zoologist Clarence E. McClung.