public, coeducational institution of higher learning based in Springfield, Mo., U.S. It has one of the largest undergraduate enrollments in the state. Missouri State offers about 15 undergraduate degrees in more than 110 academic programs and 13 graduate degrees in about 30 programs. There are about 47 academic departments within the colleges of arts and letters, business administration, education, health and human services, humanities and public affairs, and natural and applied sciences, the College of Continuing Education, and the Extended University. The university operates a dozen research and service centres. The Duane G. Meyer Library contains a collection on the French writers Arthur Rimbaud and Michel Butor. A campus at Mountain Grove houses the State Fruit Experiment Station (founded 1899), and there is a two-year branch campus in West Plains (founded 1963). There are approximately 17,400 students enrolled at the main campus.

The university was established in 1905 as Missouri State Normal School, Fourth District; it began training teachers the following year. In 1919 it was renamed Southwest Missouri State Teachers College, and in 1945, with an expanded curriculum, it became Southwest Missouri State College. Elevated to university status in 1972, it acquired its present name in 2005.