The University of Pittsburgh, sometimes known simply as Pitt, is a state-funded and publicly supported research institution located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At its metropolitan Pittsburgh location, the university is made up of seventeen schools and colleges for undergraduate and graduate students. This campus is also home to the central administration of the university as well as 28,391 students enrolled in undergraduate and graduate programmes. The 132-acre Pittsburgh campus has a number of historic structures that are included as a part of the Schenley Farms Historic District. The Cathedral of Learning, the campus' Gothic revival centrepiece, is the tallest of these buildings at 42 stories. The University of Pittsburgh is recognised as an R1 university, which indicates that it participates in a very high level of research endeavours, and it is a member of the Association of American Institutions, which is an exclusive association of the most prestigious research universities in North America. Research money from the National Institutes of Health is a significant source of revenue for the University of Pittsburgh, making it the third-largest receiver of government supported health research funding among institutions in the United States in 2018. According to the National Science Foundation, Pitt ranked 14th in the country in terms of the amount of money it spent on research and development in 2018, spending a total of one billion dollars. It is the organisation that employs the second-most people in the private sector within the metropolitan region of Pittsburgh. Throughout addition, the institution has four undergraduate branch campuses in Western Pennsylvania. These campuses may be found in the cities of Bradford, Greensburg, Johnstown, and Titusville.
In addition to the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, Schenley Park, and Carnegie Mellon University, the campus is located in close proximity to the flagship medical facilities of its closely affiliated. The campus is also within walking distance of the University of Pittsburgh.
Hugh Henry Brackenridge established the Pittsburgh Academy in 1787, which is where the University of Pittsburgh had its start. Pittsburgh's rapid growth meant that a proper university was soon needed, and in 1819, Pitt's charter was altered to confer university status on it as the Western University of Pennsylvania. At the time, the city was still on the edge of the American frontier, but the rapid growth of the city meant that a proper university was soon needed. The institution was renamed the University of Pittsburgh in 1908 by an act of the state legislature when it relocated to its present site in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh. Prior to that, it had endured multiple moves and two disastrous fires before settling in its current location. Before it joined the Commonwealth System of Higher Education in 1966, the University of Pittsburgh was a non-public educational establishment.
There have been a total of 297 Fulbright Scholars produced by the University of Pitt, in addition to eight Rhodes Scholars and ten Marshall Scholars. The University of Pittsburgh's faculty and alumni have produced a total of six Nobel laureates, three Pulitzer Prize winners, three Academy Award winners, various members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, [quantify] seven senators from the United States of America, three cabinet officials from the United States of America, and five governors of states within the United States.
When it comes to sports, the University of Pittsburgh competes as the Pittsburgh Panthers in Division I of the NCAA, largely as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference. A total of five Olympic medals have been won by athletes from the University of Pittsburgh.