University of Southern Maine

The Institution of Southern Maine (USM) is a public university that is located in the state of Maine, United States, and has campuses in the cities of Portland, Gorham, and Lewiston. The University of Maine at Fort Kent is the most southern campus in the University of Maine System. It was originally established as Gorham Normal School and the University of Maine in Portland, both of which were independent state universities. In 1970, the two colleges were merged into a single institution in an effort to assist streamline the public university system in Maine. Eventually, the university grew by adding a campus in Lewiston in 1988.

The Edmund Muskie School of Public Service, the Bio Sciences Research Institute, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and the Osher Map Library, as well as the University of Southern Maine School of Business, are all located on the Portland Campus of the university. The School of Education and Human Development as well as the School of Music are also located on the Gorham campus, which is significantly more residential. The University of Southern Mississippi had a student-faculty ratio of 13:1 as of the 2019 academic year, with 6,700 undergraduate students and 1,500 graduate students.

Following its transformation from Gorham Academy into an institution of higher learning, the University of Southern Maine (USM) was founded in 1878 as Gorham Normal School. It was then renamed Gorham State Teachers College, and then Gorham State College. In 1970, this educational establishment became the University of Maine at Portland-Gorham after it united with the University of Maine at Portland, which had previously been known as Portland Junior College (UMPG). In 1978, the institution became officially known as the University of Southern Maine. In 1988, the Lewiston-Auburn campus was established as a separate entity.