The University of Illinois at Chicago is a major public research university located in the heart of one of the world's great cities. The university confers degrees from the baccalaureate and professional to the doctorate and includes the only public academic medical center in Illinois. The University of Illinois at Chicago has a strong mission to enable students to attain an education, no matter their financial means. The university provides excellent academic programs and an unprecedented mix of races, ethnicities, religions, languages, and national origins to make it one of the most diverse campuses among Illinois colleges.

Further, the complex problems of the region call upon the University of Illinois at Chicago to respond with greatness. The university's Great Cities Commitment transforms the traditional university concept of public service into a vital engagement with its neighborhood and the greater metropolis. The campus's wealth of research capacity and human creativity is utilized to step up to the challenges facing Chicago. Faculty, staff, and students engage in hundreds of programs with community, corporate, government, and civic partners to improve the quality of life locally and urban life nationwide.

The school has a three-fold mission of teaching, research, and public service. By bringing an elite research faculty to an urban mission, the University of Illinois at Chicago forges an identity that aligns it with other leading universities but makes it different. In the heart of the city, this university offers extraordinary opportunity to all who seek learning in an intense research environment. It is urban and elite; it is elite but not exclusionary; it joins access with excellence.