Background
The University of Akron, originally called Buchtel College, was founded in 1870. The school was named after coal and iron industry leader John Buchtel and associated with the Universalist Church. The school later became non-denominational.
In 1913, facing financial difficulties, the school’s trustees turned it over to the city of Akron and it began serving as the city’s municipal university. At around this point, the school began to call itself the University of Akron. In 1967, it officially became one of Ohio’s state universities.
The University of Akron’s main campus enrolled more than 27,000 students in fall 2010 and employed about 5,000 people.
The school’s 2012 budget was nearly $400 million.
Annual undergraduate tuition and fees for an Ohio resident attending the University of Akron’s main campus in 2011-12 was $9,245. With room and board, the bill would come to about $19,535.
According to the most recent federal data, about one third of University of Akron main campus, full-time undergraduates who entered the school in fall 2003 graduated within six years.
