UNC Charlotte HISTORY
UNC Charlotte is one of a generation of universities founded in metropolitan areas of the United States immediately after World War II in response to rising education demands.
Charlotte’s education and business leaders, long aware of the area’s unmet needs for higher education, moved to have the Charlotte Center taken over by the city school district and operated as Charlotte College, offering the first two years of college courses. Later the same leaders asked Charlotte voters to approve a two-cent tax to support that college.
As soon as Charlotte College was firmly established, efforts were launched to give it a campus of its own. With the backing of Charlotte business leaders and legislators from Mecklenburg and surrounding counties, land was acquired on the northern fringe of the city and bonds were passed to finance new facilities. In 1961, Charlotte College moved its growing student body into two new buildings on what was to become a 1,000-acre campus 10 miles from downtown Charlotte.
Three years later, the North Carolina legislature approved bills making Charlotte College a four-year, state-supported college. The next year, 1965, the legislature approved bills creating the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the fourth campus of the statewide university system. In 1969, the university began offering programs leading to master’s degrees. In 1992, it was authorized to offer programs leading to doctoral degrees.
Now a research intensive university, UNC Charlotte is the fourth largest of the 16 institutions within the University of North Carolina system and the largest institution in the Charlotte region.
The university comprises seven professional colleges and currently offers 18 doctoral programs, 62 master’s degree programs and 90 bachelor’s degrees. More than 900 full-time faculty comprise the university’s academic departments and the 2007 fall enrollment exceeded 22,300 students. UNC Charlotte boasts more than 75,000 living alumni and adds 4,000 to 4,500 new alumni each year.
Over the past two decades, Charlotte has transformed from a regional business hub to the second-largest financial services center in the United States. Home to the global headquarters of nine Fortune 500 companies, the region has become a magnet for ambitious and aspiring young professionals from all over the world.
Just as the city has evolved, UNC Charlotte has as well. The university has anticipated and responded to this transformation by developing innovative academic programs and research centers in its seven colleges.
The Belk College of Business began collaborating with the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences on the Mathematical Finance program in 2003. Together, the two colleges have designed this program to develop a highly specialized talent pool to manage the increasingly complex financial services industry. Industry leaders have been actively involved in ensuring that the curriculum provides students with the essential knowledge needed to succeed in the fast-paced financial arena.
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About the University
College of Liberal Arts & Sciences