The University of Missouri (also, Mizzou, MU, or University of Missouri–Columbia) is a public, land-grant, research university located in the U.S. state of Missouri. In 1839, the university was founded in Columbia as the first public institution of higher education west of the Mississippi River. As the largest university in Missouri, MU enrolls 35,441 students offering over 300 degree programs in 19 academic colleges in the 2014–15 year. It is the flagship campus of the University of Missouri System, which also maintains campuses in Rolla, Kansas City, and St. Louis.

MU is one of the nation's top-tier R1 institutions and one of the 34 public universities to be members of the Association of American Universities. There are more than 270,000 MU alumni living worldwide with almost one half continuing to reside in Missouri. The University of Missouri was ranked 103rd among national universities in the 2016 U.S. News & World Report rankings .

The campus of the University of Missouri is 1,262 acres (511 ha) just south of Downtown Columbia and is maintained as a botanical garden. The historical campus is centered on Francis Quadrangle, a historic district that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and a number of buildings on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1908, the world's first school of journalism was founded by Walter Williams as the Missouri School of Journalism.