private coeducational institution of higher learning in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S. It is affiliated with the Jesuit order of the Roman Catholic Church. Although the funding for a Jesuit school in Milwaukee had been secured by 1848, Marquette College was not established until 1881; it began as a liberal arts college for men and was named for the 17th-century French Jesuit missionary-explorer Jacques Marquette (Marquette, Jacques). It became a university in 1906, and in 1909 women were first admitted. From 1907 to 1913 the university expanded to include medicine, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, business, engineering, journalism, and law. In 1967 the medical school separated from Marquette, and in 1970 it became the Medical College of Wisconsin. Total enrollment is about 11,000.

Marquette University offers degree programs at the bachelor's, master's, doctoral, and professional levels. It comprises 11 schools and colleges, including a school of law. The School of Dentistry is the only school of its kind in Wisconsin. Since 1965 the university has operated a study centre at the Complutensian University of Madrid (Madrid, Complutensian University of) in Spain. The Haggerty Museum of Art, featuring works of the masters and contemporary art, was opened in 1984.