°®ÎÛ´«Ã½

Alaska significance

• °®ÎÛ´«Ã½ is America's northernmost Land, Sea and Space Grant institution and one of only a handful of universities in the nation with this triple-crown distinction.
  
  
• °®ÎÛ´«Ã½ played an essential role in Alaska's statehood. Delegates to the Constitutional Convention in 1955–1956 wrote the state's constitution in the student union building, now known as Constitution Hall. The constitution was signed in what was then the university gym and is now Signers' Hall.
  
  
• °®ÎÛ´«Ã½ got its start with about $100 dollars for a cornerstone that was laid in 1915, two years before the university even officially existed. Today, °®ÎÛ´«Ã½ has the largest presence, impact and geographic scope of any university in Alaska. In addition to its seven campuses, °®ÎÛ´«Ã½ maintains research stations, learning centers, Cooperative Extension Service offices and Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program offices across the state.
  
  
• °®ÎÛ´«Ã½ is home to the UA Museum of the North, which holds the world's largest collection of Arctic dinosaurs, among other notable holdings.
  
  
• °®ÎÛ´«Ã½ is home to the Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, the largest library in Alaska.

Academics

• U.S. News and World Report named °®ÎÛ´«Ã½ the only national university in Alaska, putting us in a category with the best universities in the country.
  
  
• Times Higher Education ranked °®ÎÛ´«Ã½ among the top 25 of the world’s best small universities in 2020. 
  
  
• °®ÎÛ´«Ã½ is the leading Ph.D.-granting university in Alaska.
  
  
• °®ÎÛ´«Ã½ has had 20 faculty Fulbright Scholars since 2010.
  
  
• The College of Engineering and Mines consistently fields one of the nation’s best steel bridge-building student teams. In April 2019, °®ÎÛ´«Ã½ claimed the top spot in the Pacific Northwest regional competition for the fourth time in five years.
  
  
• College of Business and Security Management students, on average, have scored better than 91 percent of other students on the Educational Testing Service's business field exam since 2005, when °®ÎÛ´«Ã½ students first started taking the test. Undergraduates in over 700 U.S. universities take the exam each year.

Research

• °®ÎÛ´«Ã½ has the highest number of publications and citations in Arctic research of any university in the world. 
  
  
• °®ÎÛ´«Ã½ operates the Research Vessel Sikuliaq (pronounced see-KOO-lee-ack], one of the most advanced university research vessels in the world.
  
  
• °®ÎÛ´«Ã½ is home to the Poker Flat Research Range, the largest land-based rocket research range in the world, the only high-latitude rocket range in the country and the only such range operated by a university.
  
  
• °®ÎÛ´«Ã½ brings in almost 90 percent of the research dollars for the entire University of Alaska system.
  
  
• °®ÎÛ´«Ã½ ranks in the top 150 of the nearly 700 U.S. institutions that conduct research.
  
  
• °®ÎÛ´«Ã½ is a founding member of the University of the Arctic, a consortium of colleges, universities and research organizations in the eight Arctic nations that work together to build strong education and research networks to address the needs of the circumpolar North. 
  
  
• °®ÎÛ´«Ã½ researchers are helping to reshape our understanding of the first Americans, using DNA analysis of the oldest human remains ever found in northern North America. Remains from , as well as a , have revealed a distinct group of people dubbed the Ancient Beringians.