Oklahoma State University

Oklahoma State University (OSU) was founded on Christmas Day in 1890 and when its first students gathered for class, there were no buildings, no books and no curriculum. OSU expanded rapidly following World War II and the post-war years were marked by a huge surge in enrolment. Graduates from that era lived alongside veterans and their families in ‘Veteran’s Village’ as surplus military housing was provided by the university on its campus. Today, OSU is located across five campuses and attracts more than 35,000 students from all 50 US states and around 120 countries worldwide. Its main campus in the city of Stillwater serves over 26,000 students, while situated in Tulsa is the university’s Centre for Health Studies, established over 30 years ago and which offers nine graduate degrees in osteopathic medicine, biomedical sciences and forensic sciences. South of Tulsa is its Institute of Technology, founded in 1946 and which boasts a wide range of industry partnerships. The university’s Oklahoma City branch, operational since 1961, offers two-year and four-year undergraduate degree programmes. It also has a branch campus in the north eastern city of Stillwater that enrols an additional 8,000 students. The newest member of the campus family, known as OSU-Tulsa, was created in 1999 and situated in the Greenwood neighbourhood near the city’s downtown business area. Here, students earn the same degree as at the Stillwater campus through junior-, senior- and graduate-level courses. OSU’s main university library is the Edmon Low Library, established in 1953, which houses more than three million volumes of books. Its executive PhD in business was the first to be offered at any major American university. OSU prides itself on the ‘cowboy spirit’ that underpins the history and culture of Oklahoma state.