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Missouri's higher education is organized around its two big metros. Twenty-eight of the state's sixty-nine four-year institutions are in St. Louis or Kansas City, including a research university of national standing and a dense set of health-professions, theological, and art schools. Springfield forms a third, smaller centre.
Missouri is one of only a handful of states with two historically Black public universities — Lincoln University in Jefferson City, which is also a land-grant institution, and Harris-Stowe State University in St. Louis. The public sector otherwise divides between a four-campus system and eight independently governed state universities.
What this list covers
- 69 four-year degree-granting institutions with a physical campus in Missouri: 13 public, 48 private nonprofit, 8 for-profit.
- Included: any institution the federal IPEDS directory records as active, degree-granting, at the four-year level, and awarding a bachelor's degree or higher. That covers universities, liberal arts colleges, seminaries, art and music conservatories, health-professions schools, and graduate-only institutions.
- Excluded: community and technical colleges, and any institution whose highest award is an associate degree or a certificate. Two-year institutions are covered on the Ohio page only — see Ohio colleges for the reasoning.
- Excluded: system and administrative offices that hold their own IPEDS identifier but enrol no students.
- IPEDS reports some administrative and online units as separate institutions. These are folded into their parent here: Drury University-College of Continuing Professional Studies (reported under Drury University); Evangel University-College of Online Learning (reported under Evangel University).
- This is a directory, not a ranking. No tuition, fee, or aid figure appears on this page. Verify anything here against the institution's own site before you act on it.
Four-year degree-granting institutions
| Institution | City | Control | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| A T Still University of Health Sciences | Kirksville | Private nonprofit | Medical school or centre |
| Aquinas Institute of Theology | St. Louis | Private nonprofit | Faith-related |
| Arizona College of Nursing-St Louis | Maryland Heights | For-profit | Not classified |
| Avila University | Kansas City | Private nonprofit | Master's university |
| Barnes-Jewish College Goldfarb School of Nursing | St. Louis | Private nonprofit | Health professions |
| Bryan University | Springfield | For-profit | Baccalaureate/associate's |
| Calvary University | Kansas City | Private nonprofit | Baccalaureate, diverse fields |
| Central Christian College of the Bible | Moberly | Private nonprofit | Faith-related |
| Central Methodist University-College of Graduate and Extended Studies | Fayette | Private nonprofit | Master's university |
| Central Methodist University-College of Liberal Arts and Sciences | Fayette | Private nonprofit | Baccalaureate, diverse fields |
| Chamberlain University-Missouri | St. Louis | For-profit | Health professions |
| City Vision University | Kansas City | Private nonprofit | Baccalaureate, diverse fields |
| College of the Ozarks | Point Lookout | Private nonprofit | Baccalaureate, diverse fields |
| Columbia College | Columbia | Private nonprofit | Master's university |
| Conception Seminary College | Conception | Private nonprofit | Faith-related |
| Concorde Career College-Kansas City | Kansas City | For-profit | Health professions |
| Concordia Seminary | St. Louis | Private nonprofit | Faith-related |
| Cottey College | Nevada | Private nonprofit | Baccalaureate/associate's |
| Covenant Theological Seminary | St. Louis | Private nonprofit | Faith-related |
| Cox College | Springfield | Private nonprofit | Health professions |
| Culver-Stockton College | Canton | Private nonprofit | Baccalaureate, diverse fields |
| Drury University | Springfield | Private nonprofit | Master's university |
| Eden Theological Seminary | Webster Groves | Private nonprofit | Faith-related |
| Evangel University | Springfield | Private nonprofit | Master's university |
| Fontbonne University | St. Louis | Private nonprofit | Master's university; CLOSED |
| Hannibal-LaGrange University | Hannibal | Private nonprofit | Baccalaureate, diverse fields |
| Harris-Stowe State University | St. Louis | Public | HBCU; Baccalaureate, diverse fields |
| Kansas City Art Institute | Kansas City | Private nonprofit | Arts, music, and design |
| Kansas City University | Kansas City | Private nonprofit | Medical school or centre |
| Kenrick Glennon Seminary | St. Louis | Private nonprofit | Faith-related |
| Lincoln University | Jefferson City | Public | HBCU; Land-grant; Baccalaureate, diverse fields |
| Lindenwood University | St. Charles | Private nonprofit | Master's university |
| Logan University | Chesterfield | Private nonprofit | Health professions |
| Maryville University of Saint Louis | St. Louis | Private nonprofit | Doctoral/professional |
| Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary | Kansas City | Private nonprofit | Faith-related |
| Mission University | Springfield | Private nonprofit | Faith-related |
| Missouri Baptist University | St. Louis | Private nonprofit | Master's university |
| Missouri Southern State University | Joplin | Public | Master's university |
| Missouri State University-Springfield | Springfield | Public | Doctoral/professional |
| Missouri University of Science and Technology | Rolla | Public | Doctoral, high research |
| Missouri Valley College | Marshall | Private nonprofit | Baccalaureate, diverse fields |
| Missouri Western State University | St. Joseph | Public | Master's university |
| Nazarene Theological Seminary | Kansas City | Private nonprofit | Faith-related |
| Northwest Missouri State University | Maryville | Public | Master's university |
| Ozark Christian College | Joplin | Private nonprofit | Faith-related |
| Park University | Parkville | Private nonprofit | Master's university |
| Ponce Health Sciences University-St Louis | St. Louis | For-profit | Health professions |
| Research College of Nursing | Kansas City | For-profit | Health professions |
| Rockhurst University | Kansas City | Private nonprofit | Master's university |
| Saint Louis University | St. Louis | Private nonprofit | Doctoral, high research |
| Southeast Missouri Hospital College of Nursing and Health Sciences | Cape Girardeau | Private nonprofit | Health professions |
| Southeast Missouri State University | Cape Girardeau | Public | Master's university |
| Southwest Baptist University | Bolivar | Private nonprofit | Master's university |
| St Louis College of Health Careers-Fenton | Fenton | For-profit | Health professions |
| Stephens College | Columbia | Private nonprofit | Master's university |
| Stevens-The Institute of Business & Arts | St. Louis | For-profit | Baccalaureate, diverse fields |
| Truman State University | Kirksville | Public | Master's university |
| University of Central Missouri | Warrensburg | Public | Master's university |
| University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy in St. Louis | St. Louis | Private nonprofit | Health professions |
| University of Missouri-Columbia | Columbia | Public | Land-grant; Doctoral, very high research |
| University of Missouri-Kansas City | Kansas City | Public | Doctoral, high research |
| University of Missouri-St Louis | St. Louis | Public | Doctoral, high research |
| Urshan Graduate School of Theology | Wentzville | Private nonprofit | Faith-related |
| Urshan University | Wentzville | Private nonprofit | Baccalaureate, diverse fields |
| Washington University in St Louis | St. Louis | Private nonprofit | Doctoral, very high research |
| Webster University | St. Louis | Private nonprofit | Master's university |
| Westminster College | Fulton | Private nonprofit | Liberal arts college |
| William Jewell College | Liberty | Private nonprofit | Baccalaureate, diverse fields |
| William Woods University | Fulton | Private nonprofit | Doctoral/professional |
Public university systems
IPEDS records a four-campus public system plus one further system label. The remaining eight public universities are reported standalone.
University of Missouri System
- Missouri University of Science and Technology
- University of Missouri-Columbia
- University of Missouri-Kansas City
- University of Missouri-St Louis
Missouri State University
- Missouri State University-Springfield
Reported without a system affiliation
- Harris-Stowe State University
- Lincoln University
- Missouri Southern State University
- Missouri Western State University
- Northwest Missouri State University
- Southeast Missouri State University
- Truman State University
- University of Central Missouri
Tuition reciprocity
Missouri takes part in the Midwest Student Exchange Program (MSEP), run by the Midwestern Higher Education Compact. Where a participating public institution accepts an MSEP student from another member state, it may charge no more than 150 per cent of its in-state rate; participating private institutions offer a reduction of at least 10 per cent. Participation is decided campus by campus and program by program — it is not automatic, and a university being in a member state does not mean every one of its programs takes part.
The member states are Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, and South Dakota do not participate.
Related pages
- Colleges by state — the other fifty pages.
- Colleges and universities — how the directory is organized and what it deliberately leaves out.
- Ohio colleges — the flagship page, and the only one that covers two-year institutions.
Closed or closing since this data was collected
The table above is built from a federal snapshot, and colleges close faster than the snapshot refreshes. These are the institutions on this page whose status has changed since it was collected. Each was verified on 2026-08-11 against the institution's own record and the news reporting cited there. A row carrying a marker in its Notes column is listed here.
- Fontbonne University (Clayton) — announced March 2024 and ceased operations in 2025. Enrollment had fallen from 2,293 in 2011 to under 900.
Sources
- NCES IPEDS, Directory information (HD2024) — the 2024–25 collection, the
spine of this table. Institution names, cities, control, level, highest award,
land-grant and HBCU/tribal flags, and system affiliation all come from it.
Downloaded from
nces.ed.gov/ipeds/datacenter; data checked 11 August 2026. - Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, 2021 Basic —
the Notes column, as carried in the IPEDS
C21BASICfield. Checked 11 August - Midwest Student Exchange Program, About MSEP (
msep.mhec.org/about) — the reciprocity section, including the member-state list and the 150 per cent and 10 per cent limits. Checked 11 August 2026. - Wikipedia, List of colleges and universities in Missouri — used only as a cross-check on coverage, never as the source of a name or a city. Title resolved through the MediaWiki API on 11 August 2026; no redirect, not a disambiguation page.
A caution on currency. HD2024 is the 2024–25 collection, so it is roughly two years behind this page. Colleges close, merge, and rename faster than a federal directory records it. Treat any single entry as a lead to verify, not as proof the institution is still operating.