[10][11][12] The university's campus, which is primarily in southeast Houston, spans 894 acres (3.62 km2), with the inclusion of its two instructional sites located in Sugar Land and Katy.

The university operates more than 35 research centers and institutes on campus[19][20] in areas such as superconductivity, space commercialization and exploration, biomedical sciences and engineering, energy and natural resources, and artificial intelligence.

On March 7, 1927, trustees of the Board of Education of the Houston Independent School District (HISD) unanimously signed a charter founding the junior college.

[25][26] HJC was originally located on the San Jacinto High School campus and offered only night courses to train future teachers.

[32] At this time, there was no road that led to the land tract, but in 1937, the city added Saint Bernard Street, which was later renamed to Cullen Boulevard.

[35] On March 12, 1945, Senate Bill 207 was signed into law, removing the control of the University of Houston from HISD and placing it into the hands of a board of regents.

[25] Beginning roughly during this period, UH became known as "Cougar High" because of its low academic standards, which the university leveraged to its advantage in recruiting athletes.

[38] The University of Houston, initially reserved for white and non-black students, was racially desegregated circa the 1960s as part of the civil rights movements.

[45] Recent campus beautification projects have garnered awards from the Keep Houston Beautiful group for improvements made to the Cullen Boulevard corridor.

Additionally, the University Branch of the Fort Bend County Libraries system is located on the campus for use by students and the Sugar Land community.

[55] Currently, the chancellor/president resides in the Wortham House in Broadacres Historic District, provided by the UH System Board of Regents as part of the chancellor/president's employment contract.

[20][58][59][60][61] In 2022, UH System Board of Regents unanimously approved the addition of a new degree program of the Bachelor of Arts in Mexican American and Latino/a Applied Studies.

[63][64] The University of Houston's faculty includes National Medal of Science recipient Paul Chu from the Physics Department, and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Jody Williams.

The College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS) has the Creative Writing Program which includes founders such as alumnus Donald Barthelme and offers degrees in poetry, fiction, and non-fiction.

[77] UH president Renu Khator hailed these achievements, stating that “progress is not just about numbers; it’s about the positive, lasting impact we have on our students and the broader community.

Our students deserve the best education, and our city and state deserve a top-notch public university.”[80] However, this improvement in rankings was largely due to changes in U.S. News' ranking methodology,[81] which removed key measures of academic excellence, such as the percentage of faculty with the highest degrees, the percentage of students in the top 10 percent of their high school class, and average class size.

One faculty member pointed out that the focus on rankings, which increasingly reward colleges for simply granting degrees, has reduced the quality of instruction.

In an effort to meet ranking metrics, the university has increased class sizes to boost revenue and lowered academic requirements and performance standards to raise graduation rates.

As one faculty member put it, these changes “increased revenue and decreased costs, more customers and fewer employees (though, paradoxically, more midlevel managers).” The shift “exemplifies the creeping corporatization of higher education—'Bilk them, and they will come.

[84] It operates more than 40 research centers and institutes on campus,[85][86][87] and through these facilities, UH maintains partnerships with government, health care and private industry.

[88] Areas of interdisciplinary research include nanotechnology, superconductivity, space commercialization and exploration, biomedical sciences and engineering, energy and natural resources, and artificial intelligence.

The hall offers a variety of events sponsored by departments and organizations at the university in addition to contemporary music concerts, opera, modern dance, and theatrical performances put on by groups in and outside the Houston area.

In June 2017, a divided panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit found that the university did not violate the Constitution's Due Process Clause or Title IX when it expelled both a student for committing a campus sexual assault in a dorm room then abandoning the nude victim in a dorm elevator, as well as his girlfriend, who had recorded the assault and shared the video on social media.

The student-led festival is a part of a long-standing tradition dating back to the 1940s established by Gan Bey which later became the Sigma Chi Fraternity's Epsilon Xi chapter at UH.

[112] The Cougar Paw is a popular hand sign used by University of Houston students, faculty, alumni, and athletics fans to represent camaraderie and support.

[113][114] UH has many recreational sport clubs, including rugby, NCWA wrestling, soccer, tennis, water polo, kendo, esports and gymnastics.

See also Phi Slama Jama, the Cougars teams of the early 1980s that featured future NBA legends Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon.

Jack Valenti, long-time president of the Motion Picture Association of America, creator of the MPAA film rating system, and a special assistant in the Lyndon B. Johnson administration, received his B.B.A.

Alice Sebold, a novelist known for Lucky and The Lovely Bones, and Matt Mullenweg, creator of WordPress (the most popular, open-source blogging platform), also attended the university.

Notable athletes within the list include NFL players Wilson Whitley, Glenn Montgomery, Alfred Oglesby, Craig Veasey, Donnie Avery, David Klingler, Kevin Kolb, Billy Milner, Sebastian Vollmer, Case Keenum, and Heisman Trophy winner Andre Ware; baseball stars Doug Drabek, Michael Bourn, and Brad Lincoln; golfers Fred Couples, Billy Ray Brown, Steve Elkington, and Fuzzy Zoeller; track and field legends Carl Lewis and Leroy Burrell; NBA basketball players Hakeem "The Dream" Olajuwon, Clyde "The Glide" Drexler and "The Big E" Elvin Hayes as well as Bo Outlaw, Don Chaney, Michael Young, Damon Jones, Carl Herrera and Otis Birdsong; and legendary Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry.