History of The University of North Carolina In North Carolina,
all the public educational institutions that grant baccalaureate
degrees are part of the University of North Carolina. The multi-
campus state university encompasses 16 such institutions, as
well as the NC School of Science and Mathematics, the nation's
first public residential high school for gifted students.
Chartered by the North Carolina General Assembly in 1789, the
University of North Carolina was the first public university in
the United States to open its doors and the only one to graduate
students in the eighteenth century. The first class was admitted
in Chapel Hill in 1795. For the next 136 years, the only campus
of the University of North Carolina was at Chapel Hill.
Additional institutions of higher education, diverse in origin
and purpose, began to win sponsorship from the General Assembly
beginning as early as 1877. Five were historically black
institutions, and another was founded to educate American
Indians. Some began as high scho