University of Portland
The University of Portland is a private Catholic university in Portland, Oregon, United States. It was founded in 1901 and is affiliated with the Congregation of Holy Cross, which also founded UP's sister school, the University of Notre Dame. UP enrolls approximately 3,700 students.
The campus is in the University Park neighborhood near St. Johns, on a bluff overlooking the Willamette River. With a college of arts and sciences, a graduate school, and schools of business, education, engineering, and nursing and health innovations, it is Oregon's only comprehensive Catholic university. UP is North Portland's largest corporation and has an annual economic impact on Portland of $170 million. More than 17,000 alumni live in the Portland metropolitan area.
History
The first institution located on Waud's Bluff was Portland University, which was established by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1891. Amid financial setbacks following the Panic of 1893, Portland University vacated the Bluff Campus to hold classes from 1896 to 1897 in East Portland, where it was joined temporarily by the recently insolvent College of Puget Sound.According to University of Portland tradition, Archbishop Alexander Christie, the head of the Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon, saw a large building on the bluff from aboard a ship on the nearby Willamette River. He learned that it was called West Hall and had been unoccupied for several years since the closure of Portland University.
The Archdiocese purchased West Hall and the surrounding campus with financial assistance from the Congregation of Holy Cross, and named the new institution Columbia University after the nearby Columbia River. The university opened its doors to 52 young men on September 5, 1901, with eight Catholic priests from the local archdiocese serving as professors. At the request of the archbishop, the Congregation of the Holy Cross assumed ownership of the university in 1902.
After two decades, Columbia University achieved junior college status. In 1925, the university's College of Arts and Sciences was founded, and in 1929, a class of seven men were awarded the university's first bachelor's degrees. In 1935, the school took on its present name, the University of Portland. The 1930s also saw the St. Vincent Hospital school incorporated to the university as the School of Nursing & Health Innovations, and the creation of the School of Business.
In 1948 the school of Engineering was founded, followed by the Graduate School in 1950 and the School of Education in 1962. University of Portland admitted women to all courses of study in 1951. Prior to this transition, Marylhurst University had been the only Catholic institution of higher learning to serve the educational needs of Oregon women. The building housing the library was completed in 1957. In 1967 ownership of the school was transferred from the Congregation of Holy Cross to a board of Regents. Multnomah College became part of the University of Portland in 1969.
Rankings
The University of Portland was ranked as the second-best Western Regional University by U.S. News & World Report for 2022. The University ranked third for Best Undergraduate Teaching and sixth for Best Value.Admissions
Admission to UP is rated as "selective" by U.S. News & World Report.For the Fall of 2022 Portland had an acceptance rate of 95%. Half the applicants admitted to University of Portland have an SAT score between 1160 and 1360 or an ACT score between 26 and 31. However, a standardized test score is not required as part of the application.
Academics
UP has six divisions of study: the College of Arts & Sciences, the School of Business Administration, the School of Education, the Shiley School of Engineering, the School of Nursing & Health Innovations, and the Graduate School. The most popular majors for undergraduates are Nursing, Biology, Marketing & Management, Finance, Elementary Education, Organizational Communication, Psychology, and Spanish.College of Arts & Sciences
The College of Arts & Sciences is the liberal arts core of the university and has seventeen departments: Biology, Chemistry, Communication Studies, English, Environmental Studies, International Languages & Cultures, History, Mathematics, Performing & Fine Arts, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science, Psychology, Social & Behavioral Sciences, Social Work, Sociology, and Theology.Several of the departments offer graduate programs in addition to their undergraduate majors, and these programs dual report to the Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences and the Dean of the Graduate School. The Communication Studies department offers a M.A. in communication and a M.S. in Management Communication. The Performing & Fine Arts department offers the M.F.A. in Directing. This program is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Theatre. The Theology department offers a three-year Master of Arts in Pastoral Ministry. The M.A.P.M. program was started in 2000 in collaboration with Gonzaga University, but in 2010 the partnership ended and the University of Portland continues to offer the program independently.
School of Business
The School of Business is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business and offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees. In 2025, the name changed from "Pamplin School of Business" to "University of Portland School of Business." Its undergraduate program ranked as among the "Best Undergraduate Business Programs" by U.S. News and its Part-Time MBA is placed highly in U.S. News Best Grad School rankings.The undergraduate program offers a BA in economics and a BBA in five different areas: Accounting, Finance, Economics, Marketing and Sustainability, and Operations and Technology Management.
At the graduate level, the School of Business offers a MS in finance, a MS in Operations & Technology Management, an MBA, an MBA in Nonprofit Administration, a technology entrepreneurship certificate, and a post-MBA certificate. The graduate degrees are accountable to both the Dean of the School of Business and the Dean of the Graduate School. The MBA program is noted for its diversity within the context of Oregon. Among the five AACSB MBA programs in Oregon, UP's School of Business has the highest percentage of women, minorities, and international students.
School of Education
The University of Portland School of Education is an undergraduate and graduate program which provides graduates with a teaching license in some, but not all U.S. states. The program is characterized by an emphasis on field experience, and inclusion, with first classroom placements beginning almost immediately. It received the 2002 Model of Excellence Award from the Association of Independent Colleges for Teacher Education.The PACE program allows 15–25 teachers to earn a graduate degree during summer school, while gaining in-classroom teaching experience during the academic year at a Catholic school over a three-year period. PACE students live in community with other PACE students in Draper, Ogden, and Salt Lake City, Utah; Seattle, and Tri-Cities, Washington; Redding, Red Bluff, and Sacramento, California; Fairbanks, Alaska; and Portland, Oregon.
At the graduate level, the school of education offers a Doctor of Education degree, a Master of Arts, a Master of Arts in Teaching, a Master of Education, and post-Master's certificate programs in neuroeducation, reading, special education, English for Speakers of Other Languages, and educational administration.
Shiley School of Engineering
The school of engineering was founded in 1948 and grew substantially in 1969 when UP absorbed Multnomah College. Multnomah College had been established in 1897 as the Educational Department of the YMCA in downtown Portland, Oregon,and in 1969 was the oldest fully accredited two-year college in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. Multnomah College was noted for its engineering program and as a result of the merger UP renamed its school the Multnomah School of Engineering. University of Portland's School of Engineering is a perennially top-40 school among the nation's bachelor's and master's degrees-granting institutions, according to U.S. News & World Report. In 2012, it ranked 35th.
In 2007 the University of Portland was given a $12 million gift toward the School of Engineering by Donald and Darlene Shiley of San Diego. Donald Shiley arrived at UP the year the school of engineering was founded. Graduating in 1951 with a bachelor's degree in general engineering, he would later invent a heart valve and various medical devices that have been credited with saving thousands of lives. Shiley Hall is now the largest building on the UP campus and has won several awards for sustainable design and construction. The Shileys later gave an additional $8 million gift to the engineering school, which was then renamed the Donald P. Shiley School of Engineering.
The school offers accredited Bachelor of Science degrees in mechanical, civil, and electrical engineering, as well as a Bachelor of Science in computer science. A Master of Engineering degree, in collaboration with the School of Business Administration, is offered at the graduate level.
School of Nursing & Health Innovations
The School of Nursing & Health Innovations was established as the St. Vincent Hospital School of Nursing & Health Innovations in 1892, two years after the northwest region's first nurse training program was founded at nearby Good Samaritan Hospital. Throughout the 20th century many nursing education programs relocated from hospitals to institutions of higher learning; the St. Vincent school became part of this national trend when it joined the University of Portland in 1934 and began granting a four-year degree in 1938. Today most clinical practice still takes place at St. Vincent Hospital and other hospitals associated with Providence Health & Services, a not-for-profit Catholic health care ministry.The School of Nursing & Health Innovations awards the BS in Nursing baccalaureate degree and the MS in Nursing graduate degree. The Doctor of Nursing Practice is a professional doctorate program initiated in 2008. The master's entry program enables individuals who possess a non-nursing bachelor's degree to enter nursing at the graduate level. In collaboration with practice partners, the clinical nurse leader Master of Science degree prepares generalists for leadership at the point of care. In 2007, the School of Nursing & Health Innovations was ranked 72nd in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. American Assembly for Men in Nursing named the University of Portland the nation's Best Nursing School for Men.