Academic Programs, Assessment, and Accreditation

Introduction

Oregon State University is one of seven institutions in the Oregon University System and adheres to the policies of the Oregon State Board of Higher Education. The Oregon University System (OUS) Chancellor’s Office carries out the Oregon State Board of Higher Education’s statewide goals and initiatives, implements legislatively identified and required fiduciary, compliance, Board and Governor’s policies, and all directives related to higher education.

Founded in 1868, Oregon State is the state’s Land Grant university and is one of only two universities in the U.S. to have Sea Grant, Space Grant and Sun Grant designations. Oregon State is one of two universities in Oregon to have earned the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching top designation, awarded to research universities with “very high research activity.” OSU has also earned the Carnegie’s Foundation’s “community engagement classification.”

OSU programs and faculty are located throughout the state of Oregon and are dedicated to investigating the state's greatest challenges. OSU considers the state of Oregon its campus and works in partnership with the P-12 school system, Oregon community colleges and other OUS institutions to provide access to high quality educational programs. Strong collaborations with industry and state and federal agencies drive OSU's research enterprise.

As Oregon’s largest public research university, with a record $275 million in external research funding in 2009-10, Oregon State’s impact reaches across the state and beyond and has a statewide economic footprint of $1.5 billion. In addition to the main campus with 11 academic colleges, OSU operates 15 Agricultural Experiment Stations, including the Food Innovation Center in Portland and the OSU Seafood Laboratory in Astoria, 35 county Extension offices, the Hatfield Marine Sciences Center in Newport,  a branch campus at OSU-Cascades Campus in Bend, two teaching/research forests (McDonald and Dunn Forests), and several experimental farms and an arboretum.

Oregon State welcomes a diverse student body of nearly 24,000 students from across Oregon, all 50 states and more than 100 countries. They can choose from more than 200 undergraduate and more than 80 graduate degree programs, including over 20 degrees offered online. Oregon State increasingly attracts high-achieving students, with nationally recognized programs in areas such as conservation biology, agricultural sciences, nuclear engineering, forestry, fisheries and wildlife management, community health, pharmacy and zoology.

Oregon State also ranks high in sustainability, fourth among universities nationwide for using renewable energy and first in the Pac-10 Conference. And our students literally help power the university: 22 exercise machines at Dixon Recreation Center are connected to the grid.

The 400-acre main campus in Corvallis includes a Historic District, making Oregon State one of only a handful of U.S. university campuses listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The district includes such icons as Weatherford Hall, the Memorial Union and Benton Hall, the oldest building on campus.

Oregon State is located in Corvallis, a vibrant college town of 55,000 in the heart of Western Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Corvallis consistently ranks among the best and safest cities to live in the U.S., as well as among the most environmentally responsible.