See 200 years of Michigan universities’ false starts, wild growth and recent declines
The history of Michigan’s public universities runs back more than two centuries to the University of Michigania, which operated out of a single building on Bates Street in Detroit. It wouldn’t move to Ann Arbor until the 1830s. Eight of the state’s other public universities were established between 1849 and 1902. Several started as “normal schools” for the training of teachers. You can find out more about the history of Michigan’s universities, their growth in the 20th century and their enrollment declines over the past decade in the timeline below.
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